A mere four days after the Green Bay Packers' disastrous home opener against the Atlanta Falcons, the team added yet another veteran offensive lineman to the rotation in the form of massive guard/tackle Mekhi Becton.
Becton, now entering his sixth NFL season, was most recently with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2025, but won a Super Bowl a year earlier with the Philadelphia Eagles. That season was something of a career revitalization for the former first-round pick, who was drafted as a tackle for the New York Jets in 2020.
The 6-foot-7, 363-pound lineman struggled to stay healthy and effective for New York. In Philly, he was kicked inside to right guard and flourished as part of the best offensive line in football that year.
Packers will hope Mekhi Becton can bounce back now that he's healthy
Becton signed a two-year, $20 million contract with the Chargers in 2025, but was released a year later. His time with the Chargers, also spent at right guard, was ineffective at best. Pro Football Focus gave him a 37.1 overall grade over 794 snaps and credited him with allowing 39 pressures, 29 hurries, seven QB hits, and three sacks.
The Packers will hope Becton's injury was the main issue in 2025, and that his play returns to a level closer to what we saw in 2024. For now, Becton is signed to Green Bay's practice squad, unlike Laken Tomlinson, who landed on the Packers' active roster immediately.
Mekhi Becton had labrum surgery in late March after not knowing he played with it torn last season. Played around 360 pounds last year and he's down to 345. He's healthy now. Let's see if he can help the Packers.
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) September 28, 2026
Becton is the latest of three additions Green Bay has made at guard. The team signed Cordell Volson on September 17, Tomlinson on September 26, and now Becton. We'll see how quickly the Packers can get the trio up to speed and ready to contribute to an offensive line in desperate need of reinforcements.
Between the three of them, Brian Gutekunst has added over 17,000 snaps of NFL experience at left or right guard.
Take it this way: no matter what else they do, these guys are pretty likely to know who they need to actually be blocking in the first place. And that's an improvement.
Why Brian Gutekunst deserves his share of the blame for Packers' offensive line mess
But for a front office that usually shies away from these kinds of desperate in-season moves, three coming at the same time has made something clear. Despite Matt LaFleur and his coaching staff taking most of the flak from the press and fans (and the players starting to receive some deserved criticism), Gutekunst is also starting to feel the heat.
And he should be. There's plenty of blame to go around regarding the state of the offensive line, but the man who put it all together shouldn't be able to avoid his share. There's a certain chicken-and-egg conundrum when things go this wrong.
Is the offensive line bad because they aren't being taught correctly, or is the coaching staff hamstrung by the lack of talent on the roster? The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
It's LaFleur's job to set the lineup and decide who starts on game day.
Any criticism around playing Donovan Jennings over Jager Burton, or the constant movement of players all along the line, is fair, but don't forget that Gutekunst has let Elgton Jenkins, Cole Van Lanen, Jon Runyan Jr., Josh Myers, and Rasheed Walker leave the team in one form or another. All of those players are starting and playing better with their new teams.
Between injuries and the pathetic play that Green Bay fans have witnessed, the Packers' line just isn't good enough to compete in the NFL by a long shot. Both MLF and Gutey will spend the rest of the season improving the situation as best they can, but it's important to recognize that Gutey's hands are at least somewhat tied by the salary cap.
Big names like Taylor Decker and Kevin Zeitler have drawn fans' attention as potential fixes, but Green Bay has only around $11 million in salary cap room right now, according to Over The Cap.
The Packers will need to get creative or watch what was supposed to be a contending team waste its potential and risk the health and confidence of Jordan Love along the way.
Add us as a preferred source on Google