Former Louisville star Mekhi Becton’s massive stature as the largest prospect in the 2020 NFL draft is a combination of nature and nurture.
His dad was a football player in the Arena League and his mom a professional caterer, the ideal mix for raising a 6-foot-7-inch, 364-pound behemoth of an offensive tackle who is projected to go in the first half of the first round of the draft.
“My mom’s cooking, that’s why I’m so big,” he said with a laugh at the scouting combine in February. “She can make anything, but soul food is her specialty. Mac and cheese, fried chicken and collard greens. That’s a good plate for you right there.”
mekhi becton
OT, Louisville
His size has turned heads since he was a little kid. He stood head and shoulders above other kids in his age group, so his parents had to carry a birth certificate to every basketball game to prove his age. What he’s able to do with that hulking frame has him in the mix to be the first tackle off the board when teams start making selections Thursday.
Becton was the largest player participating in the combine and the heaviest since Georgia Tech defensive tackle T.J. Barnes in 2013. Barnes played briefly in the NFL before playing with the New York Guardians of the XFL this season.
Becton’s professional prospects are much brighter, although Becton is aware of a flagged drug test from the NFL combine and has addressed it with several clubs, while awaiting official notification.
It’s not his size that has NFL teams drooling, however. In fact, teams have started to go away from the concept of bigger is better over the last decade after years of a steady rise in the weight of the average offensive lineman.
When position specialization started to gain more popularity in the 1950s, the average offensive lineman was 6-foot-2 and 234 pounds. The average rose to 251 in the 1960s and 255 pounds in the 1970s.
The 1980s first saw the average rise over 270 pounds, with the famed “Hogs” line in Washington checking in at 280 pounds in 1982. Those guys would look tiny by the 1990s when the average offensive lineman cracked 300 pounds. The average was up to 313 pounds at the turn of the century and has remained largely stagnant the last two decades.
Teams , instead, have opted for players with good size who also have the agility to get to the second-level of the defense and pull to the other side of the formation while being strong and agile enough to take on the league’s pass-rushing specialists.
Fast-paced offenses have also led to a plateauing of the average size up front.
Duke Manyweather, an offensive line scouting and development consultant who works with NFL stars like Lane Johnson and Trent Brown in addition to Becton, said even the biggest linemen in the league are starting to look more like “long, lean and explosive track athletes.”
Enter Becton, who was measured at 17 percent body fat and ran a 5.1-second 40-yard dash at the combine. He was the heaviest player to run a sub-5.2 at the combine since 2006, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“He can run a 5-flat, he can change directions, he can do 360-dunks in basketball,” Manyweather said of his pupil. “When you see that, it’s freaky. It’s scary. He’s just one of those rare guys that possesses that old-school size with the new school athleticism.”
That’s part of what makes it difficult to find a comparable athlete at the NFL level. Becton says several teams have told him they want him to play at around 355 pounds.
He obsessively studies film of guys like Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden and former Browns star Joe Thomas, but he has the size of a guy like Brown, the Raiders star who was the biggest player at the combine in 2015 at 6-8 and 355 pounds. He now plays at 380.
“They’re both big guys that can block out the sun, but (have) completely different games,” Manyweather said of Brown and Becton. “Trent is a huge dude with sweet feet and so smooth. He’ll get his hands on you in pass protection and play with length, controlling and dictating the matchup. Mekhi is going to bring the fight to you. He’s such an explosive athlete who is going to come get you, and when he gets you, you have to try to beat him and it’s not happening.”
Becton’s athleticism has contributed to some doubting his commitment to football. He still loves basketball and has been asked about how much he truly enjoys football, though Becton said he has been all-in on the game since realizing he showed pro potential in 10th grade.
“I have to prove I love to finish plays,” he said. “My background in other sports, they feel I’m not passionate.”
Manyweather scoffs at the critique, deferring to Becton’s junior season film at Louisville.
“You can’t argue with tape,” he said. “People want to say he’s only pass-protecting for two seconds. No, he’s ending the fight in two seconds. You’re not going to run around him, and if you try to change directions, he’s got you.”
Not everyone is completely sold despite the size and raw talent.
“To classify some of Becton’s blocks as dominant is almost doing them a disservice,” according to Mike Renner of Pro Football Focus. “While those types of blocks will be less frequent at the NFL level, the power that was behind them is a damn good starting point for an offensive tackle. The problem is that he’s still somewhat near that starting point. He’s still a work in progress in pass protection, and we tend to lean more toward finished products.”
Becton admits it’s important to him to be the first tackle off the board because he has worked toward that goal, though he doesn’t care which team drafts him. He just wants to prove he’s not just the biggest linemen out there, but also the best.
“I love being the biggest offensive lineman in the draft,” Becton said. “I love intimidating people. I feel like I’m the most dominant tackle in this draft. You won’t go wrong picking me. It’s fun seeing your man on the ground every play and then going to jump on him. That’s what I love about the game.”
The scouts seem to like it, too. He’s about to find out if NFL teams still believe bigger is better.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
Big men on campus
Largest player at the NFL combine by year:
2020 — Mekhi Becton, OT, Louisville, 6-7, 364
2019 — Dexter Lawrence, DT, Clemson, 6-4½, 342
2018 — Vita Vea, DT, Washington, 6-4, 347
2017 — Zach Banner, OT, USC, 6-8⅜, 353
2016 — Chris Mayes, DT, Georgia, 6-3⅛, 338
2015 — Trent Brown, OT, Florida, 6-8½, 355
2014 — Daniel McCullers, DT, Tennessee, 6-6¾, 352
2013 — T.J. Barnes, DT, Georgia Tech, 6-6¼, 369
2012 — Alameda Ta'amu, DT, Washington, 6-2½, 348
2011 — Carl Johnson, OG, Florida, 6-5, 361
2010 — Terrence Cody, DT, Alabama, 6-3⅝, 349
2009 — Herman Johnson, OG, LSU, 6-7¼, 356
2008 — Frank Okam, DT, Texas, 6-4½, 347
2007 — Paul Soliai, DT, Utah, 6-4, 344
2006 — Max Jean-Giles, OG, Georgia, 6-3¾, 355
2005 — Chris Kemoeatu, OG, Utah, 6-3½, 344
2004— Shawn Andrews, OT, Arkansas, 6-4⅛, 366
2003 — Kareem Marshall, OT, Georgia, 6-4⅝, 359
2002 — Mike Williams, OT, Texas, 6-5⅝, 375
2001 — Leonard Davis, OT, Texas, 6-6, 370
2000 — Stockar McDougle, OT, Oklahoma, 6-5⅜, 361
1999 — Aaron Gibson, OT, Wisconsin, 6-6⅛, 386
1998 — Chris Akins, DT, Texas, 6-1, 323
1997 — Jamie Nails, OT, Florida A&M, 6-6 ⅛, 387
1996 — Forrest Conoly, OT, Florida State, 6-6½, 371
1995 — Korey Stringer, OT, Ohio State, 6-4¼, 345
1994 — Kevin Mawae, C, LSU, 6-3⅝, 385
1993 — Jon Kirksey, DT, Sacramento State, 6-3⅜, 368
1992 — John Ray, OG, West Virginia, 6-7⅜, 353
1991 — Terrill Chatman, OT, Alabama, 6-3, 330
1990 — Blake Bednarz, C, Syracuse, 6-2⅝, 314
1989 — Mark Nua, OT, Hawaii, 6-6⅛, 374
1988 — David Richards, OT, UCLA, 6-5, 327
1987 — Jeff Zimmerman, OG, Florida, 6-3¾, 341