Mekhi Becton says Jets coaches to blame for injury after forced move to RT

Following a 14-game rookie season in which Mekhi Becton allowed just 23 pressures on 690 offensive snaps, it appeared the New York Jets had found their franchise left tackle.

However, a series of knee injuries have kept Becton out of 33 of a possible 34 games over the last two seasons — the last of which, Becton says, happened when Jets coaches ignored his reservations about playing right tackle because of his knee injuries.

“It made no sense to put me at right tackle,” Becton recently told Newsday. “I hurt my right knee. That’s going to be the knee that I put the most pressure on [while blocking]. I explained it [to the coaches] but no one cared.”

Even Becton’s surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the surgery on his right knee the season before, agreed moving the 6-foot-7, 364-pound lineman to the right side was a risky move — one that could risk further damaging Becton’s knee.

However, despite how well he played at left tackle during his rookie season, the Jets listed Becton as a right tackle heading into training camp last season. During a practice on the day he was injured, Becton reportedly informed Jets coaches that his knee didn’t feel right but nobody took his claim seriously. 

Not long after, he suffered a second season-ending knee injury in as many years.

“I got forced to play a position I don’t play, and then I was pretty much telling them I wasn’t feeling good the whole time throughout camp, and I was told I shouldn’t be complaining,” Becton stated. “’Go out there and do it.’ I was limping throughout the whole practice, and I just took a step and my knee buckled and I got hurt again and had to get reconstructive surgery.”