Lets put it this way. People are saying Becton was our best lineman Sunday and citing his PFF grade of 58. Its not a question of Becton being the best, its a question of his grade being 58. This is supposed to be our star left tackle, first rounder, and hope for the future. A 58 is alarming. Becton cant be having games like that with our expensive new FQB. Saying he played slightly better than the dregs isn't an good excuse or badge of honor. To compare, Becton gave up more QB hits in 3 quarters Sunday than Wirfs gave up in 20 games last season. Even more concerning is this is his third injury this season, foot, head, knee. Through week 1 he has had to sit three times which already matches his last years missed time. The latest is a dislocated knee. That is an especially bad injury for a big guy and he's not going to come back new and improved - and his lateral movement, which was his problem, is really going to decline. Even if he does play well when he returns his injury history is too unstable to bank the future on. The scary but obvious truth is Becton isn't our long term answer at LT and after drafting Zach this is a bad time to realize it. Zach needs all the help he can get up front and all he's got is yesterdays garbage. I'd love to be able to trade Becton for a couple of firsts if someone was desperate enough, but the tragedy is Zach needs him to come back this season. Time to reformulate next years round 1.
These guys get into a physical regimen of burning a zillion calories and consuming even more throughout the course of a season. When you take the calorie burning part of the equation away, they have to seriously alter their diet during rehab or they'll start loading the pounds, and that's not easy when your body has conditioned itself to be taking in those calories on the regular. For a guy his size with his muscle mass, that's easier said than done. Putting on weight is a realistic expectation.
His lateral movement will not be hindered by his dislocation. According to all reports, the only ligament Becton damaged in his knee was his MCL, which one healed, will provide full stability in his knee again.
Spot on. We may want to consider seeing how AVT does at LT given his experience there in college. For people saying it's too early to consider moving on from Becton, I would say this: Guys his size don't generally recover well from multiple lower leg injuries, which he has now sustained in just over one season. By sticking with him we are basically hoping he defies the odds despite having little reason to think he will. By the time it's clear to everyone in the league that he's unreliable he will have very little trade value left (honestly, we may already be at that point given the knee injury).
I couldn't possibly disagree more. There is nothing spot on with Ouchy's post. It is way too early to be even thinking the way that Ouchy and you are regarding Becton. You don't give up this quickly on a player with Becton's talent and ability. AVT worked at LT in soft Pac-12, but it was the consensus that he was not an LT in the NFL, but rather a LG. He might could play LT for a few plays, maybe even a game or two, but there's no way I'd want to see him at LT for any length of time with Zach starting. Becton may need to lose 30-40 pounds. IMO you are totally wrong. There is plenty of reason to think that Becton will come back and will get stronger, lose weight or do whatever he needs to do to become a great player.
What reason is there to believe that? He's 2 full offseasons and 1 full season into his career and the weight is apparently still an ongoing concern. He might suddenly flip the switch and get more serious about his conditioning but what reason do we have to think he will if he hasn't already? It doesn't usually become easier for people to keep weight off as they age. His leg/feet injuries are also going to make it more difficult to do conditioning exercises. It's very difficult to recover from serious leg and foot injuries when you're as heavy as Mekhi is. Mekhi isn't just big, either, he's one of the 10 heaviest players to ever play in the league. It also becomes a negative feedback loop. Injured->can't do conditioning->gain weight due to lack of conditioning->extra weight increases stress on legs->leg injuries become more common and harder to recover from. Rinse and repeat.
One reason we have to believe that he will is that he admitted that he had to stop eating his mother's cooking, and he hired a personal chef so he could eat healthier. I remember reading what he ate this offseason to lose weight. Another reason is that he has a burning desire to be great. Those players usually do whatever it takes to get there. I firmly believe that if he needs to lose 40 pounds, he will work his ass off and do it. I could be mistaken, but until I see clear evidence that I am, and that he is lazy or no longer cares to be great, then I will believe in him. It can definitely become a negative feedback loop. He definitely needs to lose at least 20 pounds, and would probably be better losing 30-40 pounds, but it may take him a couple of years to do that.
It's possible to believe that, but the reality is that the odds are against him him achieving the kind of weight loss we're talking about while he's injured. Even if he goes on a "starvation diet", that will hurt him because he'll start losing muscle mass and that will make him weaker. As REVISion said, he's going to find himself in a negative feedback loop. Believe me, I don't want this to be the case, and I was really happy when JD drafted him, but Mekhi is showing some very troubling signs. I think best case scenario is that they move him to RT for the foreseeable future, and if he shows he can play at a high level there, maybe he can be moved back to LT. I don't fault Douglas for drafting him. There was no way to predict that he'd suffer these injuries since he was pretty healthy in college, and if he worked out he could've been at least an All Pro. The good news is that he's still young and could reach his potential. It takes 3-4 years for an OL to hit their stride usually. The problem is that our OL was so shitty that he was looked upon to be an instant "savior" and that was beyond his capability right now. I think he's trying to do too much at times, actually, and that leads to things getting out of whack, not just with him, but those around him. At this point I don't think they'd get what they would need to get for him in a trade, so the CS is going to have to figure how to unlock all that potential.
AVT should learn how to play guard first before we go moving him to tackle. He was pretty bad sunday and did nothing to indicate he'd be better at the more difficult position of left tackle. Fant is there for a reason, to play the LT if Becton can't.
Of course the odds are against him losing weight while he was injured! I wasn't thinking he would lose that weight while injured. It would have to be after he has recovered from the injury. Hopefully, he will cut back on his intake of calories per day while injured or spend a lot of time swimming/doing upper body work so that he doesn't put on a lot of weight. Once he's healthy, working with a nutritionist, he should be able to come up with a plan whereby he takes the weight off steadily so his body stays strong and energized. Moving him to RT is an idea, but he may still be our best option at LT even overweight.
You're on a roll adding anything to a conversation these days. I see you stopped stalking Legler and have moved on to me eh?
Not at all. But I'm having a hard time with people just throwing shit out there. Let's be honest. No one knows jack shit about this guy's mindset, training, development, etc.
You have no idea either whether it's a good mindset, training regiment, etc. That's why a message board exists. We're fans here to speculate and discuss.
Ehhh. We have reports that he was upwards of 380 lbs near the end of last season and was actually disciplined by the team for it. We also have the quote from Saleh this offseason about Becton needing to take better care of his body. Seems pretty obvious he has not been as disciplined about his weight as he should be. It'd be one thing if he was playing lights out anyway but when you're getting beaten for sacks all offseason and play terribly in the first real game of the season it seems perfectly fair to question Mekhi's mindset and dedication.
You do understand that modern coaches that aren't named Gruden or Mike Zimmer are never going to openly call players out right? It's pretty obvious what he's alluding to.
