September 09, 2024

Eagles film review: Mekhi Becton's encouraging debut vs. the Packers

Starting right guard Mekhi Becton was everything the Eagles needed him to be in Week 1.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images

Eagles RG Mekhi Becton

During the offseason, we reviewed Mekhi Becton's Week 5 performance against the Eagles in 2023. That game was regarded by PFF as one of Becton's worst games of the season, and yet even with the concerns that showed up on film, his play was also intriguing.

I came away with the following positives from that review:

He displayed a solid anchor, which you would expect of such a massive player.
He got guys to the ground six (!) times in pass pro against the Eagles, and four different players. His power was obvious.
If he gets his hands on you in the run game, you're moving backwards.

And the following negatives:

He is so wide and he has such long arms that it's difficult to run around him, and he also showed the agility to handle speed around the edge. However, he was susceptible to inside counters because he cannot reverse his momentum once he commits to blocking the edge.
He was a little out of control in the run game. Again, once his momentum is going in one direction or another, it can be used against him. In pass pro, that's inside counters. In the run game, quicker interior linemen are going to occasionally get him to whiff and make tackles for loss in the backfield.

In his Week 1 debut against the Packers, Becton displayed the positives from our offseason review, but none of the negatives. The following is a cutup of 14 blocks he made against the Packers. (You'll have to click through to Twitter to watch them.)

A quick thread of Eagles RG Mekhi Becton blocks Week 1 vs. the Packers 🧵

These are in chronological order...
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) September 9, 2024

He stayed under control as a run blocker, unlike in our offseason film review. That was likely a focus of Jeff Stouland's during spring and summer practices, because there is a pretty stark difference in his body control. Similarly, his off-balance issues that showed up in pass pro were non-existent against Green Bay, because, well, he was playing at RG, and there just isn't the same kind of space for defensive linemen to work counters on the interior.

But also, there were some "wow" moments. The obvious play was when he got to the second level and shoved a linebacker into the fourth dimension. But even more impressively, in my opinion, was the play where he pulled to the left from his RG spot, and set up like a LT, and then shut down Preston Smith. He has that LT experience in his background, so Stoutland can get creative on those kinds of blocks. And finally, I was impressive by his blitz recognition, highlighted by the block on Quay Walker that led to Jalen Hurts' touchdown pass to Saquon Barkley.

To note, the above video of Becton's blocks were a highlight reel of sorts. However, there weren't really much in the way of lowlights. One might ding him for two pressures on the night, but neither were egregious. (I was curious to see if PFF dinged him for those, and they did.)

Cam Jurgens' play was encouraging as well

Jurgens' night has mostly been remembered for some negative plays.

• He had the premature snap that led to a turnover in the first quarter.

• There was the fumbled exchange between Jurgens and Hurts late in the game at the goal line with a chance to go up by two scores.

• There was another failed tush push. (Personally, I thought that was blocked well enough, but it looked like a Hurts slip on that crappy field — followed by Dallas Goedert falling on top of him — led to that failed attempt.)

The hope is that the premature snap was a product of rust, and not a sign of things to come.

But otherwise, Jurgens had some really nice blocks of his own, which we cut up here:

Eagles C Cam Jurgens had his share of highlight reel run blocks against the Packers. He wasn't perfect, but there's a lot to work with. pic.twitter.com/NbAe1BeER5
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) September 7, 2024