Larry Henry Jr
Tyler Steen’s recent injury has forced Mekhi Becton into the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line rotation.
Steen’s ankle injury in Saturday’s practice has forced head coach Nick Sirianni to provide Becton with additional opportunities in training camp. Becton, a former first round draft pick by the New York Jets, signed with the Eagles as a free agent last April after mainly featuring as a tackle in his career.
However, Becton’s new opportunity is at guard, which might be his lone opportunity to crack the Eagles starting lineup this season. The 25-year-old has experience, featuring in over 1,700 offensive snaps during his NFL career while Steen, 24, only featured in 71 snaps during his 2023 rookie season.
While Steen isn’t expected to miss ample time through injury, Becton will be expected to make the most of his chances during preseason.
“Mekhi has had a good camp so far and looking forward to getting him some work next to Lane (Johnson) and continue to work forward with that,” Sirianni said Monday. “As bummed as we are that Steen’s going to be out a little bit – and again, not giving a timeline there, it shouldn’t be something that’s long – giving other people opportunities to work, and Mekhi’s going to be one of those guys.”
“Obviously, anytime you miss time it’s going to be a setback, I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s not,” Sirianni added when asked about Steen’s injury. “But that’s football. You’re going to have that with a lot of guys. They can’t control that. That’s done. He can only control the things he can, which is his rehab, which is coming out here to practice and getting the mental reps, which is going to walkthroughs and getting the mental reps, which is being highly detailed in the meetings.”
The Eagles open their 2024 preseason schedule on August 9 against the Baltimore Ravens, who they will also host during the regular season schedule this fall.
You can follow Larry Henry on Twitter (@lhenry019) and e-mail him at [email protected].
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