I hate this 'I told you so' crap. Were we ridiculous to be concerned over the length of his injury lay-off? Absolutely not. And the vast majority (minus a few haters) wanted him to come back and be great.
Great to see this. I wonder what it feels like to be a defender when facing 360+ pounds of chip on his shoulder nastiness. Some opponents are going to call in sick on game day
Let me know when he makes it to the field on game day. I’m sick of this dude. Very good sign that he lost the weight and he’s putting in work but if he’s just going to get hurt again, who cares?
All I care about is him being a full go come training camp. If healthy and in shape, the sky is the limit for him. Its nice to see that he has seemingly lost weight and is at a good playing size. Having said that, it doesnt mean anything if he isn't on the field with everyone else.
I can't view the image for some reason. Is this from his Twitter account? What is Becton's Twitter account? Tks.
This photo is from June 20th, about a week after mandatory minicamp, where Becton was too heavy to practice. The issue with Becton isn't body composition. He's pretty lean for such a big guy. The problem is that even if you're relatively lean, you're still going to lose a lot of quickness and agility being almost 400 lbs. It's just way heavier than optimal. There is a reason almost all of the top LTs ever have been around 320 lbs - it's big enough to not get overpowered but not so big that they get killed by speed rushers. Now consider that Becton is about 25% heavier than that. It's like a RB showing up at 270 lbs when he should be 220 - who wouldn't be concerned? How long have we been seeing these photos and videos that allegedly show Becton in "great shape"? It's been years, yet he's seemingly always overweight when it's time to get on the field. These are meaningless.
The CS protocol is to bring players slowly back from injury. Not initially having them practice but rather work on the side. I would expect them to do the same with Becton but more so. He has now had 4 consecutive different injuries which has limited him since mid season rookie year. He had the shoulder injury which followed him through a good portion of the 2021 off-season, then the foot injury, then the concussion which kept him out until opening day and then the knee injury. It has been almost 2 years since he has been healthy. I would expect the CS to be extra conservative with him and give him a really light workload this camp easing him in very slowly. The fans will hate it and the media will harp on it but I am sure the priority is doing their best not to get him injured again.
It's been 10 months since Becton suffered a 4-6 week injury. Saleh also made a point to say that the knee is 100% healed and wasn't the reason Becton didn't practice during minicamp.
you mention 4 injuries.... in only 14 games played. Yikes And yet the front office is going into the season counting on him as a starter for a 17 game season!!?!? -- I sure hope one of these walk-on tackles can play because they are going to see the field, no doubt
Saleh also said Becton was still in the process of recovering from the knee injury during OTAs in April or May and he was not sure when he would be fully healed to practice. During Minicamp, in June, Connor Hughes said the reason Becton worked on the side was because of the teams protocol on how they ease players back from injury. That all players returning from injury work on the side 1st.
Bashing Becton seems to be what we do when we are bored and have no football to watch. I was certainly among those who came down on him for missing OTAs. But for the sake of being reasonable/fair/objective, the summary of criticisms and how he has responded are, I think: 1. Out of shape/fat. The picture at the top of this thread doesn't show a fat guy, IMO. He's an enormous man by nature, but he doesn't look like he's carrying a higher bodyfat percentage than OL typically carry. Assuming the photo is a fair representation of how he looks now, this seems to disprove the theory that he is fat and out of shape. 2. Injury-prone. Becton missed 2 games in 2020. That's not perfect, but it's not terrible. And while he missed 2021, that injury was not his fault. GVR getting pancaked into Becton's knee does not mean Becton is injury prone. So I'm not buying this one either. 3. Slow to heal. People vaguely knock his slow recovery from the knee injury. He has taken nearly a year to come back from his knee surgery, but sometimes knee injuries involve a slow recovery. That's not to say it really needed a full year to heal, but I haven't heard any intelligent analysis that clearly indicates his recovery was slower than it should have been or that it was his fault. That's not to say he's blameless, but we just don't know. 4. Missing OTAs. I'm harsher on Mekhi than many on this issue. When your team sucks and is trying to rebuild, and when they spent a big draft pick on you, be present. No excuses. Others seem to feel differently, which is fine. So I'm willing to write this one off as me being at the extreme end of how you should handle these things. 5. Showing up to camp over his target weight. This is very different than #1. The coaches have a very specific and well-considered view about where each player should come in weight-wise. Being over that weight doesn't necessarily mean you are fat or out of shape, but it does mean you can benefit by getting down to the target playing weight. Becton came in over target last fall. Saleh's vague comments from mini camp make it pretty clear that Becton is still above target. That's a valid knock on Becton, but it's not the end of the world. Going through the inventory, I think we tend to be harsher on Becton than is warranted. He had bad luck with Van Roten getting pancaked into Becton's knee. But beyond that, I think we're making a lot out of a little. I predict big things for Becton this year, although perhaps at RT rather than LT given Fant's performance last year.
he's a tackle not a RB so i don't thnk that's a good analogy. SOme of the people who should be concerned are on the other side of the ball; if i were the opposing head coach i'd be very concerned if Becton were blocking at the second level taking on LBs or DBs (rest in peace). let's just see how this plays out. he looks great. why is it that people are emotionally invested in seeing this guy fail; as fans we should be pulling for him
Becton's injury last September was not a "4 - 6 week injury." Why is that nonsense still being repeated?
Good post. I believe point five should be clarified to include the input of the medical and training departments with that of the coaches in what you have as "well-considered." I also wonder what the scales said the day the picture here was taken. 360? 375? 390? 405?
