When news broke that Lane Johnson was retiring from the NFL amid his 14th professional season, it sent the Philadelphia Eagles' already concerning problems on the offensive line into full-on panic mode.
Landon Dickerson is on IR after hobbling around in Week 1 against the Washington Commanders. Tyler Steen is playing pretty well but is a free agent at the end of the season. Cam Jurgens moved from center to left guard to replace Dickerson but wasn't all that much more effective in the role, struggling from Weeks 2-4 before self-reporting concussion symptoms and being placed in the protocol on Monday.
And now, unless something massively changes, the Eagles will be rolling with three players with very limited NFL experience as they fly out to London for an early-morning showdown with the Jacksonville Jaguars: Markel Bell, Drew Kendall, and Willie Lampkin, assuming Jurgens remains unable to play.
After heading into Week 4 without a single backup tackle suited up for the game, with Fred Johnson still out with a knee injury and Howie Roseman opting against calling up any of his tackle options – Kiran Amegadjie and John Ojukwu – from the practice squad, the Eagles only have six healthy offensive linemen heading into Week 5 if Jurgens and the Johnsons can't play.
Fortunately, there is a player currently on another team's practice squad who could help to bolster the line depth, has a Super Bowl ring with an Eagles logo on it, and could give Philadelphia a fighting chance to remain relevant as their offense remains a work in progress: Mekhi Becton.
The Eagles need to finally reunite with Mekhi Becton
When free agency opened up in March of 2025, Mekhi Becton really didn't want to sign anywhere else but Philadelphia.
Becton noted heading into free agency that he loved his time in Philadelphia, thanked the organization profusely before joining the Los Angeles Chargers on a two-year, $20 million contract in March of 2025, and even urged the Birds to “call me” when he was asked about the possibility of returning in 2026 during Week 3.
Currently signed to the Green Bay Packers practice squad, in the past, the Eagles would have had to pray that Brian Gutekunst didn't protect Becton for Week 5 in order to keep him among their ranks for the rest of the week, but now? In 2026? That is no longer a problem, with the Eagles able to sign Becton immediately if they want to, assuming the Packers don't sign him to their 53-man roster first.
Article Continues BelowNow granted, though it's been less than two years, the Eagles are a very different team than the one Becton left in free agency. They have a new offensive coordinator in Sean Mannion – their second since winning the Super Bowl after 2025's Kevin Patullo disaster – are committing to a new run game designed around the outside zone, and have a new offensive line coach in Chris Kuper, who replaced long-time stalwart and the man who helped rejuvenate Becton's career, Jeff Stoutland.
But with just eight offensive linemen on their 53-man roster and only six currently healthy enough to play, just having someone with 19 games of experience blocking in front of Jalen Hurts is worth the price of admission.
Because Becton is already on a practice squad, the Eagles would need to sign him to their 53-man roster in order to get him away from the Packers, assuming he can't secure his release from Green Bay. While that might be a tad concerning, given he will likely need weeks to learn Mannion and Kuper's respective systems, if the Eagles are going to get anywhere this season, they need to at least have an average offensive line, which they don't right now.
Becton can play guard at an above-average level, can slide in at tackle in an emergency – or allow Steen to play right tackle if he slides in at guard – and ultimately just give the Eagles another option both now and next offseason, when they will need to make some serious decisions one way or another. Considering how few things are going the Eagles' way so far in 2026, this is the kind of low-risk, medium-reward move that could pay dividends in the future and serve as a stopgap now as the Birds look to remove as much water as quickly as possible from their rapidly sinking season. Unless Roseman has something else up his sleeve, bringing in Becton in Week 5 gives off Zach Ertz reunion vibes, which has worked out fairly well over the past two weeks for Philadelphia.