Eagles Top 25 Best Players Countdown: A Presumptive Backup Kicks Off The Top 20

The talent is obvious with new Eagles OL Mekhi Becton, who figures to be one of the NFL's best swing tackles and could push Tyler Steen for a starting spot.

Eagles OL Mekhi Becton / John McMullen/Eagles SI

PHILADELPHIA - Mekhi Becton isn’t even penciled in to be an Eagles’ starter during the 2024 season yet the massive, talented offensive lineman has been tabbed as good enough to be a top-20 player on SI.com’s Eagles Today annual list of the top 25 players for the Birds. 

The list has become an annual affair in which SI.com’s Eagles beat reporters Ed Kracz and John McMullen submit their top 25 lists at the same time so each would be unaffected by the others. No. 1 on the list is awarded 25 points and so on down the list with No. 25 receiving one point.

Becton finished as No. 19 on Kracz’s list (seven points) and 22nd on McMullen’s (four points) to settle in spot No. 20 overall.

The 6-foot-7, 363-pound veteran signed a one-year deal that could be worth up to $5.5 million after spending four years with the New York Jets. The 11th overall pick in the 2020 draft, Becton started 30 of the 31 games but played for the Jets just one game over the 2021 and 2022 seasons due to injuries.

In the spring Becton got starting reps at right tackle in voluntary OTAs when All-Pro Lane Johnson was in Texas and then moved to left guard in minicamp when two-time Pro Bowl selection Landon Dickerson was out with an excused absence.

For now, Becton is the sixth man for one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and he could push second-year player Tyler Steen at right guard over the summer. 

“Mekhi’s a huge guy, a lot of potential,” Johnson said. “…Just a big, strong, powerful dude. I think he’s going to help us a lot this year whether he plays tackle or guard, but a guy that big that can move that well. 

“We definitely need him out there.”

To that end offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, who has already called Becton a “fun guy to coach,” kickstarted the cross-training process early.

“I’m always the type to be open to whatever,” Becton said. “Then when you have a coach like coach Stoutland and the way he treats his players and the way he talks to them you’ll do whatever for him. He came up to me with the opportunity, I was open for it. I like to try new things anyway.”

While tackles tend to play on an island, guard play is more like a phone booth that isn’t necessarily conducive with men the length of Becton.

“It’s definitely a different adjustment for me,” Becton admitted. “I never played it before, but it’s fun. The action is right there than at tackle. Tackle they get a chance to build their speed up and stuff like that, but guard it’s all hand work and you have to be ready to fight right then and there.

“There’s no 6-foot-7 guards, so D-tackles are usually used to short people with shorter arms, so I feel like I have an advantage in that with my arms and my arm length and being able to get on them quicker than they’re used to somebody getting on them.”

Becton is so gifted you can even picture offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and Stoutland conspiring to break out the heavy packages a little more often and using Becton as an extra offensive lineman. At the bare minimum, the five-year veteran figures to be the most talented sixth man in the NFL.

“I’ve been working with him every day, and I’m really impressed with his football IQ, his intelligence, his versatility,” Stoutland said when discussing Becton. “I didn’t realize he was able to play other positions, so that in itself to have that swing value and the willingness to do it.”

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