Everything Is 'Empty' Until Eagles Come Up With Solutions On Offense

PHILADELPHIA - When the book is written on Jordan Mailata, it will be one of the more interesting professional football journeys in history.

The low-hanging fruit of the narrative is on the field, an Australian novice who, having never played the game before, was built from the ground up to be a superstar and one of the best left tackles in the world.

What’s even more amazing, however, is Mailata's impact off the field where he has arguably turned into the heartbeat of the team from a leadership perspective, handling the role once reserved for franchise legends like Jason Peters and Jason Kelce.

Mailata is EF Hutton in the Eagles’ locker room: "When he talks, people listen."

Empty Talk?

A.J. Brown and Kevin Patullo before Eagles practive on Noc. 14, 2025. | John McMullen/Eagles On SI

Predictably, no one handled the A.J. Brown “situation” better this week than Mailata.

"Whatever he says is on him, and as a teammate, I can understand his frustrations,” Mailata said this week when asked about Brown’s issues with the team’s passing offense. “But for me, I'm going to stay in my lane.”

Most in the organization understand Brown’s angst and even support one of the most popular players in the locker room.

However, it’s not their responsibility to make any course corrections.

“As an offensive lineman, if we're not getting the ball to him, how can I fix that? Go to K.P. [offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo] and tell him to get the ball to A.J.? That doesn't help anything,” Mailata explained. “That doesn't come up with a solution.”

Many will counter that by claiming it was Mailata and All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson who lobbied to shift the offense at the Week 5 bye last season to lean more on Saquon Barkley and the offensive line, resulting in 16 out of 17 wins and a Super Bowl LIX championship.

Admittedly, that makes better copy for the sanitized and edited version sold to the public but multiple team sources have confirmed that that was an example of the tail wagging the dog and politicians (in this case, head coach Nick Sirianni and then OC-Kellen Moore) rounding up key support behind the scenes before rolling out that platform.

Fast forward to this season.

“Me saying, 'I agree with A.J., go get him the ball!' I'd be the 15th person in this building telling him the same thing,” Mailata said. “It's empty."

Siranni’s job is to win games by hook or by crook and if that means blocked field goals, blocked punts and defensive shutdowns, so be it.

However, the head coach would be making his life easier if you could find a better balance to his current football life.

The Eagles’ entire philosophy is built on two statistics: winning the turnover margin and the explosive-play battle.

Philadelphia used to win both of those categories on a consistent basis. Now, it’s down to the former consistently and you’ve seen the margin of error shrinking with Sunday night's matchup with the powerful Detroit Lions looming.

Everyone in the building sees that and understands it but until it's fixed, the spin, whether it's coming from inside the NovaCare Complex or the punditry class, is just “empty.”

MORE NFL: Eagles' Pro Bowl Star Is Back In The Pilot's Seat