Big Step for a Very Big Man in San Francisco

Jordan Mailata made his first NFL start against the 49ers; he wasn't perfect, but his performance should have gained the trust of coaches and QB Carson Wentz

One game does not make an NFL career. It doesn’t even mean you have arrived.

For Jordan Mailata, though, one game was a big step in the right direction for himself and the Eagles.

He began the season with an eye on hopefully becoming the swing tackle the Eagles lost in Halapoulivaati Vaitai's departure in free agency to Detroit.

Then injuries struck and Mailata, now option three after injuries to Andre Dillard and Jason Peters, got his first NFL start against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night.

The hulking Australian help up well, not allowing any sacks or quarterback hits, and surrendering only one QB hurry. He scored a pass block grade of 75.2 per Pro Football Focus, a mark just slightly below that of Pro Bowl right tackle Lane Johnson, who checked in with a 76.4 in just 60 percent of the snaps.

That kind of performance should have earned him some trust among the coaches and quarterback Carson Wentz.

There was the false start near midfield that turned a third-and-one into a more difficult third-down conversion, which the Eagles couldn’t get and had to punt, but that feels like nitpicking of a player who never played football in his life, a player who had trouble even figuring out how to put on a helmet when he arrived as a massive project in the seventh round of the 2018 draft.

At 6-8, 346 pounds, he is a mountain masquerading as a human. “Unique” was the word line coach Jeff Stoutland used to describe him this past summer.

There’s no question a man that size has the physical gifts to play the game, but the mental side is as equally important and Mailata admitted at the end of August that he had some doubts about continuing to play the game.

He erased that thought in the offseason and listen to him now when he was asked after the 25-20 win over the 49ers if he felt any pressure replacing one of the game’s greatest left tackles in Peters.

“I’m not trying to fill anyone’s boots,” said Mailata. “I’m trying to make my own boots. That’s the one thing I came here to do, try to put some respect on my name, and tell people I’m not a rugby player anymore. I’m a football player.”

He is a football player now and he could have a bright future.

Head coach Doug Pederson referred to his new left tackle for the foreseeable future as “a ball of clay.”

“Just learning how to play, just learning how to take a big body and move it around differently than what he was used to, and like I said, he's come a long, long way in his development and his growth,” said Pederson. “You know, he's a big man, obviously. 

"He's strong and when he is 100 percent accurate on what he's doing on that particular play, it's hard for defenders to get around him, whether it's a pass block or a run block when he's right. He's still a work-in-progress.”

There were some technique issues he needs to improve on, such as letting some of the 49ers’ pass rushers get too deep into his body and losing his balance, but the pro game is all about refining technique daily no matter how long one has been in the league.

“I think the best way to describe Jordan when he first came and we've talked about this before, every day that he came into the building here was a new day for him,” said Pederson. 

“He was kind of re-learning the things he learned from the day before, and he has grown - in three years, he has grown so much with just understanding the game of football and how to play the game of football, let alone executing the offense.”

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