It doesn’t sound like a super serious injury, but when you’re trying to hang on to a starting spot for the first time in your career and you get hurt and miss time in training camp, it’s never ideal.
Tyler Steen left practice early on Saturday with an ankle injury, and veteran Mekhi Becton – who’s never played guard in the NFL – was out there with the first team on Monday morning, when the Eagles returned to practice.
Nick Sirianni said there’s no timetable on Steen but said, “It shouldn’t be something that’s long.”
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The Eagles have been high on Becton, a former 1st-round pick with the Jets, since they signed him on April 29. His willingness to practice at guard has given Jeff Stoutland a lot of flexibility because now he gives the Eagles a potential backup at four spots.
“Mekhi has had a good camp so far and looking forward to getting him some work next to Lane (Johnson) and continue to work forward with that,” Sirianni said. “As bummed as we are that Steen’s going to be out a little bit – and again, not giving a timeline there, it shouldn’t be something that’s long – giving other people opportunities to work, and Mekhi’s going to be one of those guys.”
Steen inherited the starting right guard spot when Cam Jurgens moved to center, replacing future Hall of Famer Jason Kelce. Steen started one game at right guard last year but his hold on the starting spot is probably best described as tenuous. And missing time in training camp won't help.
“Obviously, anytime you miss time it’s going to be a setback, I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s not,” Sirianni said. “But that’s football. You’re going to have that with a lot of guys. They can’t control that. That’s done. He can only control the things he can, which is his rehab, which is coming out here to practice and getting the mental reps, which is going to walkthroughs and getting the mental reps, which is being highly detailed in the meetings.
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“The things that he's missing out on, as we talk about the things to get better at each day, we talk about high detail in meetings, we talk about full speed to the snap in walkthrough, we talk about high intensity at practice, we talk about being intentional about our core values, and he can still do three of the four. But it hurts that he’s not in there getting those full-speed reps because you get better at football by playing football.”
Johnson was also sitting out practice Monday — he has a toe injury that's not considered serious and is day to day — but interesting to note that Fred Johnson was backing up at right tackle with Becton focusing on right guard. That tells you the Eagles are serious about turning the 25-year-old Becton into a combo guard-tackle.
The Eagles have other options at right guard – veteran Max Scharping started 33 games at guard for the Texans and Bengals from 2019 through 2021 and Matt Hennessy was mainly a center with the Falcons but started two games at left guard and played 232 snaps at guard. Rookie 5th-round pick Trevor Keegan from Michigan can play right guard as well. And there's also Darian Kinnard, a 2nd-year pro from Kentucky.
But you get the sense the Eagles won’t hesitate to get Becton on the field at any guard or tackle spot.