Analyzing Mekhi Becton and George Fant’s battle against Nick Bosa and Dee Ford

After an impressive season debut, the New York Jets' tackle duo of Mekhi Becton and George Fant will face a stiff challenge in the San Francisco 49ers' edge duo of Nick Bosa and Dee Ford. Jets LT Mekhi Becton vs. 49ers RDE Nick Bosa After a sterling debut, Becton is facing a terrifying stretch of five consecutive games against teams with intimidating edge rushers. It starts on Sunday with Bosa, who rushed off the defense's right side (across from the left tackle) on 77.7% of his rushes in 2019 and 91.7% of his rushes against Arizona in Week 1. Bosa has everything in his toolbox - power, speed, finesse - but his approach is built mainly around power. He looks to explode off the ball, quickly get his hands into the tackle's chest, drive him deep into the pocket, and shed the block with savvy hand usage. Becton has to be ready for the physicality of Bosa's game. On this play in the Super Bowl, Bosa engages left tackle Eric Fisher with a bull rush and then yanks Fisher down/pulls him forward to disengage. Bosa gets a hit on Patrick Mahomes despite a late start off the snap (Mahomes still completes a ridiculous throw). Sometimes, Bosa will cause damage simply by using his muscle to create penetration. On the first pass of the Super Bowl, Fisher takes an aggressive set against Bosa, and Bosa simply tucks his elbows, tightens up his hands, and fires into Fisher's chest, bulldozing him straight into the pocket. Bosa gets deep enough to deflect Mahomes' pass into the flat. Fisher lost that rep because of his late hands. He took an aggressive set but allowed Bosa to get hands-on first. That's a recipe for disaster. Becton must maximize his length and prevent Bosa from working his hands into the chest, because if Bosa gets the bull rush going, he becomes extremely dangerous. Once his man begins to sit on the power move, Bosa will start stacking up counters on top of counters to deal heavy damage. On this play against Cardinals left tackle D.J. Humphries last week, Bosa squares up Humphries but remains patient with his approach. Humphries is baited into throwing an aggressive punch, and Bosa slices inside, swipes the arm away, and blows up the play. Bosa ranked sixth among edge rushers with 80 pressures over 16 games in 2019. He only got better in the playoffs, racking up 22 pressures over three games, including a whopping 12 in the Super Bowl. This is going to be a tough one for Becton. Bosa just might embarrass the rookie a few times. But that's OK. Despite the impressive debut, we have to be ready for Becton to have some ugly games. That's the life of a rookie at any position - especially left tackle. He will have his ups and downs against a schedule full of elite rushers this season, but if he can stay mostly steady against the tough competition and continuously display impressive fundamentals on tape, he will position himself to become a consistently elite tackle in the years to come. Rookie curve aside, Becton vs. Bosa will be perhaps the biggest X-factor of Sunday's game. If Becton can keep Bosa relatively quiet, it would boost the Jets' chances of victory tremendously. The 49ers defense is predicated upon the front seven's ability to create pressure without the blitz. That all starts with Bosa. Becton shutting him down may prompt the Niners to bring the blitz more consistently, leaving fewer men in coverage, putting the spotlight on a secondary that will not have Richard Sherman. Even if the 49ers don't respond by blitzing more, a cushy pocket for Darnold against the four-man rush would still do quite nicely. Jets RT George Fant vs. 49ers LDE Dee Ford If Becton vs. Bosa is the main event, then Fant vs. Ford is the biggest match on the undercard. The 49ers are hoping Ford can be the Scottie Pippen to Bosa's Michael Jordan in one of the NFL's most dynamic one-two punches on the edge. As a member of the Chiefs in 2018, Ford led edge rushers with 77 pressures. In his first season with the 49ers last year, injuries held him to a pitch count of only 20.5 snaps per game over 11 appearances, but he posted a pressure rate of 15.4% that was slightly higher than his 2018 rate of 14.8%. Ford is questionable for Sunday's game with neck spasms, but if he suits up, Fant will be the man tasked with stopping him. In 2019, Ford rushed off the defense's left side (across from the right tackle) on 88.9% of his pass-rush snaps, and in Week 1 against the Cardinals, he rushed from the left on 91.7% of his rushes. While this matchup may appear daunting for the Jets on paper, Fant is actually the perfect tackle to shut down Ford. Ford's game is built around speed. In the season opener against Buffalo, Fant was excellent at halting speed rushes. I tracked Fant winning 14-of-15 protection reps against speed or outside moves, compared to 5-of-10 against power or inside moves. Fant gets into his set and patiently waits for Trent Murphy to throw his move. Murphy bursts upfield and looks to use a speed-rip move to the outside. When Murphy throws his inside hand, Fant slaps it down and gets control of the inside hip, carrying Murphy up the arc and past Sam Darnold. Fant takes a jump set against Murphy, and accurately lands his hands on to Murphy's inside hip before Murphy can get his inside hand into Fant's chest. Fant gains full control and again carries Murphy up the arc and out of the play, showing off some of his athleticism and grip strength. Fant begins this rep square to the line of scrimmage in case he needs to block the 4-tech. His eyes are set between the two threats in his area so he can use his peripheral vision to feel out his responsibility. When the 4-tech rushes to Greg Van Roten's outside shoulder, Fant shifts his attention to Jerry Hughes on the edge. He smoothly rotates his hips and squares up Hughes. When Hughes begins to engage, Fant drops his back leg and opens up to the outside, dodging Hughes' punch. After Hughes catches air, Fant establishes control, getting his right hand into Hughes' chest and his left hand on the back of the shoulder, carrying him upfield. Fant had a bunch of reps just like those three throughout the game. After taking steps forward with his technique in late-2019, Fant may now be in the process of taking another jump. He is mastering how to use his athleticism to its fullest in protection. Back to Ford. He's all about the moves you saw the Bills try to throw at Fant above. Here, he gets a well-timed jump off the ball and easily clears the right tackle (Rob Havenstein), ripping through and bending the edge to strip the ball from Jared Goff. Havenstein is extremely late off the ball, takes short/stocky steps, immediately opens up to the outside, and misses high on his punch. Ford makes a big play simply through pure speed against an unathletic tackle. More of the same here. Right tackle Matt Feiler is a bit late to turn his attention out to Ford as he has to respect the presence of the linebacker hovering over the B-gap. Ford builds speed upfield out of the four-point stance from a wide alignment, dips his inside shoulder, rips underneath, and bends the edge, pursuing Mason Rudolph and bringing him down for the sack. Fant is not the type of tackle who is going to be beaten with pure speed like that. He has the athleticism to hang with guys like Ford, and is finally starting to learn how to couple those gifted movement skills with the proper fundamentals that are necessary to become a truly solid protector against outside moves. This is perhaps the Jets' only favorable matchup against the San Francisco defensive front, so Fant has to take full advantage and do his part in thwarting this terrorizing unit. If Fant can hold his own against Ford one-on-one, the Jets can focus on allocating tight end and running back help to Becton's side against Bosa.

After an impressive season debut, the New York Jets’ tackle duo of Mekhi Becton and George Fant will face a stiff challenge in the San Francisco 49ers’ edge duo of Nick Bosa and Dee Ford.