Waking a sleeping giant: What to expect from Mekhi Becton in 2023?

The timeline of offensive tackle Mekhi Becton’s career with the New York Jets can be described as a roller coaster.

In 2020, he was drafted with General Manager Joe Douglas’s first ever first round pick.

By the end of the 2020 season, he was being hailed as a budding franchise tackle, coming off a strong rookie season.

Then in the first game of the 2021 season, a defender rolled into Becton’s knee. This caused an injury that was projected to take a few weeks to recover but wound up costing him the entire 2021 season. Given the longer-than-expected recovery time, Becton became ‘person non grata’ among many Jets fans by season’s end, a steep fall from grace if there ever was one.

To make matters worse, he then re-aggravated that knee in the Jets’ 2022 training camp, causing him to miss all of 2022 season. Now, all of two years later, Becton has gone from budding star to an afterthought in the minds of many Jets fans, which is understandable given that he has not played meaningful snaps in over two years.

This offseason, much time has been spent identifying players who the Jets may add in order to improve their 2023 win total. However, one of the bigger potential additions for this team may be the return of Becton, especially given the Jets salary cap restraints.

For those who have forgotten who Becton once was (and may be again), I provide his 2020 pro-football focus grades. For context, I am placing where those grades would have ranked in the 2022 season.

Overall: 74.4 (22nd)

Pass blocking: 76.0 (31st)

Run blocking: 73.9 (20th)

Needless to say, this kind of production would be very much welcomed by the 2023 Jets. While returning from two injuries to the same knee is difficult, it is possible and if it does to fruition then the Jets may reap the rewards.

But what do you think? What should the Jets expect from Becton in 2023?