Mekhi Becton does not expect that it will be too difficult to regain his footing now that he is reinstalled as the Jets’ left tackle.
At least not compared to how difficult it was when the field was wet with rain and runny paint late in Sunday’s game against the Patriots.
The Jets made a big lineup change by moving Becton from right tackle to left tackle to replace the injured Duane Brown. Becton mostly protected quarterback Zach Wilson’s blind side but allowed a sack resulting in a safety late in the fourth quarter of the Jets’ 15-10 loss at MetLife Stadium.
“It happens — I slipped on the turf,” Becton told The Post. “It is what it is. I have to stay up in that situation.”
Brown (hip) surprisingly was put on injured reserve Saturday, which means he is sidelined for at least four games.
Instead of inserting backup Billy Turner or Max Mitchell — both of whom took a lion’s share of first-team reps during training camp — the Jets moved Becton across the line to his natural spot at left tackle, moved Alijah Vera-Tucker from right guard to right tackle, and turned to rookie second-round pick Joe Tippman (a natural center) at right guard.
Becton openly campaigned to play left tackle in the offseason despite the return of Brown — a five-time Pro Bowler over 16 seasons returning after playing there while Becton was sidelined last season — before agreeing to play right tackle just to get in the starting lineup during the preseason.
So, is he excited to be back where he thinks he belongs or does it mess up weeks of training?
“I have to do what’s best for the team,” Becton said. “It’s not really that big of a change. It’s really muscle memory.”
The new-look Jets’ configuration allowed three sacks and seven quarterback hits, though those numbers are somewhat skewed because Wilson objectively held the ball for too long on many dropbacks.
The notable exception was Becton getting beat by Matthew Judon’s spin move on a third-and-15 with 2:19 remaining.
“We really needed that,” Judon said. “It was good to get some points for myself.”
Left guard Laken Tomlinson sought out Becton for a bear hug in the postgame locker room.
“I don’t want to get too personal with stuff like that,” Tomlinson told The Post, “but, in a general sense, we have a lot of faith in him and truly believe he can be a special player.”
Jets head coach Robert Saleh tried to employ gamesmanship with the Patriots by hiding his offensive line alignment — suggesting through Friday that Brown would be available — until game day.
“The way we aligned is the way we were practicing all week,” Saleh said. “We’ve been cross-training [Vera-Tucker] to play right tackle. We were prepared for this three weeks ago. Unfortunately, we had to use it.”
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