How the Eagles helped Mekhi Becton rediscover his love for football

How the Eagles helped Mekhi Becton rediscover his love for football originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Mekhi Becton is having fun again.

After a rough few years, the 25-year-old free agent pickup has helped solidify the Eagles’ offensive line at right guard. And in the process, he has rediscovered his love for the sport.

Becton credits the Eagles for helping him get there.

“I haven’t had this kind of fun since my junior year of college,” Becton said on Wednesday. “You can almost say I lost love for the game in a way. Because I was just in a bad place. But they definitely brought my love for the game back, for sure.”

After the Eagles’ 37-20 win over the Rams in Los Angeles on Sunday night, Becton tweeted about finding joy in football again. Because plenty of Jets fans saw it as a subtweet about their favorite organization, Becton made sure to choose his words carefully on Wednesday.

But there’s no doubt that he’s in a really good headspace right now in Philadelphia and he knows exactly why that is.

“These guys right here,” said Becton, scanning the locker room. “S—, the whole team. They welcomed me as if I’ve been here my whole career. It’s just made things easier to be happy. They put their arm around you and just say, ‘Come on, you got it. We’re here with you. You don’t have to do it alone, you don’t have to do anything alone. We’re here with you.’ That just makes things a whole lot easier on the field. You get to play free when you have that.”

There’s no doubt that Becton is playing free. After playing tackle with the Jets, the expectation was that he was going to come to Philly and be a backup tackle behind Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata.

Instead, Becton was willing to move to right guard when the idea was presented to him by O-line coach Jeff Stoutland and the massive former first-round pick has taken to it. Against the Rams in LA, Becton had what was perhaps his best game of the season.

After a huge win on the road with teammates he loves, of course he was thinking about how much fun he’s having this year.

On Wednesday, Becton was asked what it was like to play football when he wasn’t loving it as much as he used to.

“It’s tough. I don’t know, it’s just hard,” Becton said. “I’m really trying to find the right words to say because if I say something wrong, they’re gonna come. I don’t know, man, it’s just hard to do something that you grow up wanting to do and you grew up loving and then the support system around you drains it out of you. It’s difficult to do.

“The best way I can put it is you show up to your job and everybody is just on your ass all day, every day when you don’t do anything wrong. But you’re doing something wrong to them. You’re not going to love it as much either.”

There were questions about the future of Becton’s career just this offseason. The Eagles didn’t even sign the former first-round pick until after the draft on April 29.

But it didn’t take long for Becton to feel like he belonged in Philly.

“The first day I walked in this building,” Becton said. “I can’t reiterate it enough. The first day when I walked in here, to meet Stout, to meet the guys, to meet Coach (Nick) Sirianni, just anybody. When I came and signed my contract that day, it was just all love from Day 1.”

The Eagles have a few leaders in their offensive line room but Johnson has been here since 2013 and he has been a captain for the last three seasons.

It’s up to Johnson to help set the temperature in the meeting room and in the locker room. So he’s pleased to know that Becton has rediscovered his joy for football since joining the Eagles.

“I want it to be, ‘Hey, we’re going to work our ass off, we’re going to take it serious there and we’re also going to enjoy ourselves and laugh’” Johnson said. “I think that’s a good recipe to put you in a good head space when you play fast and you’re worry free.”

The Eagles have been rolling since the bye week with seven straight wins and have a 9-2 record with six games remaining before what they hope is a long playoff run. Becton has never played in a playoff game; the Jets never won more than 7 games in a season while Becton was there.

This season, Becton is ranked as the No. 15 guard in the NFL by ProFootballFocus, just two spots behind his teammate and Pro Bowl left guard Landon Dickerson. Even though the Eagles have a capable guard on the bench in Tyler Steen, it might make sense to re-sign Becton beyond his current one-year deal.

But Becton isn’t trying to think long-term. He’s just enjoying these moments.

“I try not to think ahead because I get very anxious,” he said. “I said that earlier in the year. I’m just going to keep my head forward, have tunnel vision and just keep doing what I can do.”

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