Injuries plagued Becton's season. The Chargers face a tough decision: keep him, cut him, or trade him for draft capital.
There is no doubt that the Los Angeles Chargers will use this offseason to remake their offensive line, if not their entire offense, and starting right guard Mekhi Becton is going to play heavily into the decisions made about that transition.
After a fantastic year with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2024, Becton signed a two-year $20 million contract with the Chargers. Considering how young Becton is, there was no reason to believe that the signing would be anything but a home run for the Chargers.
Becton played in 15 of the Chargers 17 regular season games this year but was off-the-field with injuries so often during the season that he ended up on-the-field for just 64% of offensive snaps.
If you wanted to make an argument that the injuries he was clearly fighting through led to Becton being such a poor blocker when he was on the field (he was ranked 81st out of 81 guards in terms of run blocking on Pro Football Focus), I would listen to it. That being said, I think his power-blocking style is a poor fit with Mike McDaniel's offense, so I don't think there's any real chance the Chargers bring him back for next season.
If the Chargers release or trade Becton before June 1st, they would end up with $2.5M of dead money but would save $9.7M in cap space.
Obviously, the Chargers would rather get something for Becton than nothing at all. The question that I have is whether or not Becton has enough value on the market for an NFL team to want to give the Chargers a Day 3 pick in a future NFL Draft for the right to have Mekhi Becton on what amounts to a one-year deal for $9.7M.
My guess? Becton and his agent will have a deal or two lined up for less than that, and maybe more years, in an offense that plays a style more suitable to Becton the moment the Chargers end up releasing him. I don't see a spot for him with the Eagles (the most obvious choice), but I bet there are at least one or two teams that would offer him a shot at a starting spot in exchange for a smaller dollar amount on the contract.
As for the Chargers, I think they're stuck here. Bringing back Becton would be crazy. They can use an early pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on an offensive guard to replace him, but then they'll still need to sign or trade for someone to play the other guard spot and hope that it all fits within the budget.