The Green Bay Packers have finally addressed their offensive line issues with a number of new signings.
The latest of those saw the team add free agent Mekhi Becton. While it's unclear how any of the Packers' new additions will fare, some new information about Becton suggests the team may have gotten a steal with their new signing.
"Becton had labrum surgery in the spring. He didn't know he was playing with it last year," writes Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The key part is that Becton didn't know he had the injury. With a full offseason of rehab, though, the guard seems ready to go and had some other suitors, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, before signing with Green Bay.
Mekhi Becton's underlying injury could've explained his poor 2025 season
Becton's NFL career has been one of peaks and valleys. The New York Jets selected him 11th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, hoping he'd become a franchise tackle. Despite missing all of the 2021 season, Becton had a fairly solid time with the Jets, but didn't live up to the pedigree of a fringe top-10 pick.
In 2024, Becton left the Jets and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. There, he switched from tackle to guard, and actually flourished. Becton played so well that he became the team's starting right guard and started 15 games. He helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl and would go on to sign a two-year, $20 million deal with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Unfortunately for Becton, his play seemed to completely spiral in Los Angeles, and the team released him after one year. After signing with the Packers this week, however, it seems like this underlying injury could explain that poor play.
While it feels a bit easy to pin all the bad play on an injury, there might actually be some merit to it in Becton's case. Last year, PFF graded him as one of the worst guards in the entire NFL. His 35.7 overall grade ranked 79th of 81 eligible guards – he was dead last in run-blocking grade and only 72nd in pass blocking. On 734 offensive snaps, he garnered five penalties and allowed three sacks.
For Becton, most of these numbers were all-time lows and not consistent with his previous play. In 2024, by comparison, he graded as PFF's 16th-best guard in the NFL and was 14th and 38th in run- and pass-blocking, respectively.
Of course, he was playing for a team known for its offensive play and development. Even his tenure as a tackle on the Jets never produced a performance as bad as last year's, though.
Becton is one of several linemen the Packers signed in the last week, but he has the biggest opportunity to make an impact. It represents a great lottery ticket. If the injury caused his drop-off in performance last year, Becton has a chance to bounce back and significantly improve the Packers' offensive line.
It's a bit too early to project that far out ahead for Becton, though. However, the raw data suggests something drastic changed for him between 2024 and 2025, and if the Packers' bet is proven right, their jackpot might just be season-saving for the offensive line.
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