{"id":219997,"date":"2025-02-28T17:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T22:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=219997"},"modified":"2025-02-28T17:16:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T22:16:15","slug":"this-eagles-mekhi-becton-should-be-a-top-priority-to-re-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/28\/this-eagles-mekhi-becton-should-be-a-top-priority-to-re-sign\/","title":{"rendered":"This Eagles Free Agent Lineman Should Be A Top Priority To Re-Sign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Philadelphia Eagles head into the offseason as Super Bowl champions, but they won&#8217;t be defending their title next year with the same team. The Eagles have four key free agents: Defensive end Josh Sweat, defensive tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/23\/unsung-heroes-along-philadelphia-eagles-defensive-line\/\" target=\"_self\">Milton Williams<\/a>, linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/26\/eagles-to-prioritize-all-pro-free-agent\/\" target=\"_self\">Zack Baun<\/a>, and offensive lineman Mekhi Becton. All four are due to make big money in free agency, and the Eagles cannot keep them all. Hard decisions must be made, but one of the Eagles&#8217; top priorities should be re-signing Becton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The Eagles Need To Prioritize Re-Signing Mekhi Becton In Free Agency<\/h2>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can&#8217;t Teach Size<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Standing at 6\u20197 and 364 lbs, Becton is one of the largest players in the NFL. Becton contributes massively to the tallest and heaviest offensive line in the league. The Eagles showed that size matters and the on-field results spoke for themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/04\/what-happened-to-the-last-three-2000-yard-rushers-to-make-the-playoffs\/\" target=\"_self\">Saquon Barkley<\/a>, including the playoffs, rushed for the most rushing yards in a season ever. Jalen Hurts broke his own Super Bowl rushing record for a quarterback. Becton and the line <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/pmZCOT4S1Y4\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">played a prominent role<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in this record-breaking season. Becton scored a 74.7 run blocking grade from <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/nfl\/players\/mekhi-becton\/59818\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PFF<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which put him at 19th out of 135 guards in the league.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Becton&#8217;s backup, Tyler Steen, did an admirable job this season as a utility lineman, filling in whenever someone went down. However, Steen only scored a 50.6 run blocking PFF grade, which ranked him 123rd out of 135 guards.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Continuity<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A team maintaining continuity is one of the most vital parts of repeating as a champion. Head coach Nick Sirianni cited continuity as a significant reason why passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo was promoted to offensive coordinator. The Eagles bringing back Becton would have a similar effect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So much of what makes a great offensive line comes from chemistry and communication. Another year of the Eagles&#8217; fully intact line could propel them into all-time great territory. The Eagles&#8217; dominance as a line is underscored by their 56.29% rushing play percentage, which ranked first in the league. In addition to a top-five offense, that number speaks to the offensive line&#8217;s ability to maul opponents throughout a game. Losing a lineman like Becton would see the Eagles take a step back in that category.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chemistry Matters\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Becton has made it no secret that Jeff Stoutland and the Eagles organization have helped revive his career and<\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L2rWLeFRlxg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> his love for the sport<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Eagles gave him a second chance after the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jets\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Jets<\/a> gave up on Becton. Talking to reporters, Becton said, \u201cI haven\u2019t had that feeling since high school and college. Just actually giving myself up for the team like that. That\u2019s where I\u2019d say I\u2019ve grown and got better at.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After his stellar performance last season, Becton has a chance at life-changing money, but whether it is the highest priority above comfort and fit with a team remains to be seen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Image: Kirby Lee &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Eagles will have tough decisions to make in free agency with four of their difference makers being on the market, but a top priority should be signing offensive lineman Mekhi Becton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5407,"featured_media":220043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[20517,6169,7908,7393,2633,6170],"class_list":["post-219997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eagles","tag-josh-sweat","tag-mekhi-becton","tag-milton-williams","tag-philadelphia-eagles-news","tag-saquon-barkley","tag-zack-baun"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219997"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220044,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219997\/revisions\/220044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}