Seahawks draft profile: Mekhi Becton could replace Germain Ifedi

The Seahawks face an offseason with several free agent offensive linemen. One of those linemen’s replacements could come if Seattle drafts Mekhi Becton.

The Seahawks offensive line is weird. 12s knew it could not get much worse than it was in 2017 before Seattle traded for Duane Brown. And maybe we have become resigned to the fact that the line is simply bad because we assume it is better than it was a few years ago but in actuality, it is still bad. The biggest difference between 2017 and 2019 isn’t an offensive lineman, it is running back Chris Carson.

Carson was able to create yards on his own that weren’t there really. He ranked third in the NFL with 907 yards after contact in 2019.

OK, so maybe adding Brown has made a big difference too, but after Brown the rest of the line has not been overly good. Germain Ifedi seems like he has gotten better the last two years at right tackle. But in 2019, Ifedi whiffed on 21 pass blocks. In 2017, he did on 27. In run blocking, Ifedi missed on 9 blocks and in 2017, 11. So yeah, Ifedi is slightly better than he was but he is still bad.

And his replacement could come in the form of 2020 NFL draftee Mekhi Becton from the University of Louisville.

Strengths

Becton is a massive human being. He stands 6’7″ and weighs 370 pounds. But he isn’t just big, he can move pretty well for his size too. Think D.J. Fluker but with athletic skills. With the right coaching at the NFL level, Becton will learn to utilize his size to push opposing players to his will. He is strong but still has enough agility to get left or right once a defender starts to go around him. This is very un-Ifedi-like.

Becton has long arms which allow him to recover quickly. But mostly, if Becton gets a hold of you and you are straight up with him, you are going to be pancaked. Carson will love this. So will Seahawks offensive line coach Mike Solari.

Weaknesses

Almost all of Becton’s weaknesses can be coached out of him. Can he gain too much weight? Yes. But in the NFL, players who do so lose their jobs quickly. Becton can also hold his hands too low, maybe because he faced shorter defenders. In the NFL, he will face taller guys and will need to get his hands higher to gain better leverage.