NY Jets: Daniel Jeremiah says Mekhi Becton will make the biggest rookie impact

NY Jets’ first-round pick Mekhi Becton will be asked to make a big impact in his rookie season.

The NY Jets will be expecting big things from first-round pick Mekhi Becton both in 2020 and in the future. And it doesn’t appear as though they’re alone in their expectations.

NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah recently discussed which rookies he felt would make the biggest impact in 2020 and the first player he mentioned was Becton.

Jeremiah talked about how Becton showed up in incredible shape — which let’s be honest, he 100 percent did — and how the Jets are going to throw him right into the fire in his rookie season.

But as Jeremiah detailed, Becton will be tasked with protecting quarterback Sam Darnold — something he hasn’t really been afforded to this point.

Jeremiah also named Kansas City Chiefs’ running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire as another rookie he expects will step up this season, especially following Damien Williams’ decision to opt-out.

However, he made sure to name Becton and first and insist that he has the highest expectations for the Jets’ rookie.

That’s high praise for a player who the Jets hope will live up to his top-15 pick status. Becton was taken with the 11th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft as the third offensive tackle selected in the draft behind Georgia’s Andrew Thomas and Alabama’s Jedrick Wills.

The NY Jets have high expectations for Mekhi Becton in his rookie season.

The Jets will be expecting Becton to step in as a Week 1 starter at left tackle. A challenging offseason could make the transitional process more difficult, but that won’t curb the team’s hefty expectations.

Following a difficult 2019 season that saw the Jets’ offensive line finish bottom-two in essentially every metric, the team will be hoping to see Becton and other offseason additions revamp a struggling unit.

At the very least, Becton should be an improvement over veteran Kelvin Beachum in the running game as Beachum particularly struggled as a run-blocker. In pass-protection, however, Becton might still have some work to do.

Nonetheless, Becton will be given the opportunity to learn on the job and clearly the Jets and Jeremiah feel that he should be able to do so with success.

Here’s to hoping that Becton could live up to his lofty expectations with a standout rookie season.