Still an issue

I hate talking about this . . .

And I know it’s easier said than done. Any of us who’ve tried to lose weight know that. But Mekhi Becton clearly needs to drop some weight. I’m not judging him for his weight in general terms, just in pure football terms.

It’s well-documented that he has struggled in camp with pass protection, with Carl Lawson giving him fits. True Lawson is a good pass rusher, but he’s not Lawrence Taylor. He had 20 sacks in his first four years in the league playing for the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Before I continue, I want to make it clear I’m not casting aspersions on Lawson, who is a terrific player, and he’s done a nice job in camp so far, but I’m just trying to make the point that the player Becton is getting dominated by hasn’t been on that Von Miller/T.J. Watt level as a pass rusher on the NFL level.

Becton’s weight is hurting him in pass protection, and this isn’t a new thing. It happened last year. Remember in the Jets’ loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, when he gave up two sacks to Clelin Ferrell, who has been a pedestrian pass rusher on the NFL level.

As a run blocker, he was sensational last year, but the pass protection was inconsistent, and continues to be a problem.

His weight is an issue in pass protection, especially with the Jets installing a zone blocking scheme, which generally calls for lighter linemen by NFL standards, because the linemen are on the move a lot.

I know this might sound controversial, but it’s highly unlikely Joe Douglas would have picked Becton if he knew Mike LaFleur would be coming in eventually and installing the Shanahan offense.

Becton was a good fit for Adam Gase’s system, but not as much, at his current weight, in LaFleur’s.

Douglas was picking players for a different coaching staff in the 2020 draft. This is one of the issues with the order of events over the last couple of years, with a new GM coming in in 2019 to join one coach, and then that coach being fired after the 2020 season, and a new staff coming in this year. There was a sea change in the kind of players they were looking for on both sides of the ball. For instance on defense, they are moving to a 4-3 front and looking for smaller, quicker defensive tackles and linebackers. That is why linebacker C.J. Mosley lost 20 pounds, going from 250 to 230.

And Becton probably should have done the same thing.

I know on the first day of camp I speculated that Becton looked like he lost a decent amount of weight, but I might have jumped the gun. He was wearing all black that day, and we all know black is a slimming color.

Watching Becton in camp, it’s pretty clear he still needs to lose a lot of weight.

In my opinion, he should get down to 340. He would be amazing at 340. Playing in that 360-380 range, it will be hard for him to realize his potential.

And stay healthy.

He got hurt a few times as a rookie, and then again in the spring of 2021.

With the new system, he’s going to be asked to block a lot on the move, and that could lead to some injuries, pulling all the time at his current size.

6-7, 340 is the ticket here.

And I’m sticking to it.

He clearly has a lot of work to do to get to that point.

Losing weight would not only help his play, but his health.

August 6, 2021

Premium will return by Monday at 9:30 pm.