A tale of two left tackles in Gotham on Tuesday: as the May 2 deadline passed for teams to pick up the fifth-year options on their 2020 first-round picks, the Giants are reportedly picking up the option on No. 4 selection Andrew Thomas, while the Jets have declined theirs on No. 11 pick Mekhi Becton.
Thomas will now be guaranteed $14.18 million in 2024, while Becton will not be guaranteed what would have been $13.565 million and will be a free agent next spring.
Since being two of the four tackles drafted in the Top 12 of the 2020 NFL Draft, Thomas and Becton’s careers went from parallel to anything but; both had their struggles but had promising rookie seasons, but since then, Becton has missed most of the last two seasons – playing just one game in 2021 and none last year – battling knee injuries and weight issues, while Thomas blossomed into a Second Team All-Pro in 2022 who has played 45 games in three years and played 100 percent of the Giants’ offensive snaps in 14 of 17 games last year
Becton has reportedly lost upwards of 50 pounds and is training hard to return to (and stay on) the field in 2023, and Gang Green could always use the franchise tag – which is expected to be worth about $23 million in 2024 – on the big man if he returns to his dominating ways.
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