It's hard to imagine that Mailata would go from a no-game-action rookie season to a starter protecting the franchise quarterback's blind side in one year, but who knows? All rights reserved. Where does Halapoulivaati Vaitai fit into the projections? Yet Mailata’s third season will be the most crucial. If he can play, big money and a starting job will eventually find him.

His outsized personality makes him one of the team's most popular players and Mailata showed the coaching staff that he was serious about being a great football player. And this year, like I said, understanding your body, like how to manipulate that weight and distribute the power, my pad level has been lowered.” The pad level is the only part of Mailata’s game that is lower these days. Is Mailata going to challenge for playing time? The Eagles want to be great, not just very good, up front. For now, it’s just a matter of focusing on the present and his role and controlling what he can control. “It gave me more time to focus on understanding my body, and that’s pretty much what we did this year. Mailata is going to be part of the conversation, as he's been all along. So it was easier for me to pick up the right side and learn the game of football even more.” The time away from the practice field was spent learning other necessities. For a team with some sticky questions to answer related to the 2019 salary cap and the offensive line, Mailata suddenly is a key figure. At the very beginning, when the Eagles traded in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft and selected Australian rugby star Jordan Mailata with the 233rd overall pick, it was an interesting story. Exceptional offensive line depth was a driving force behind three straight trips to the playoffs and a 4-2 postseason record for the Eagles over the previous three seasons. The irony is that Mailata believes the drafting of Dillard helped his progress. That's part of the puzzle the Eagles are putting together, an exciting piece who someday has a chance to pay big, big dividends.In an exclusive one-on-one interview, the head coach scouts the potential replacements at left tackle.Eagles players react to the Jacob Blake shooting and its aftermath.Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro digs into four quotes as the countdown to roster cutdown day looms large.He and Zach Ertz are teaming up for another season of terrorizing defenses.How good is the defense? So little is guaranteed for Jordan Mailata. “I ask him questions and he’s right on point. So it was really just an educational experience for me this year.” Furthermore, Mailata has embraced vertical sets, the most complicated pass protection technique to master because so much can go wrong when creating so much space for the pass rusher before initial contact. "When he gets it all together and understands how the game is played, he has a chance to be special. Now that BIg V is headed for possible starter’s money, the ability of Mailata to take over that role will be vital. When the Eagles traded for Peters – a tight end in college who transitioned to left tackle and future Hall of Famer in the NFL with Buffalo – in 2009, he was already an established star.Mailata is a 346-pound piece of ultra-talented clay. “I understand the game now like the back of my hand because I had to learn it all again, but this time it wasn’t like I was unfamiliar with the terms and techniques. Only this time it’s on Jordan Mailata’s right foot, which is a good thing for the Philadelphia Eagles reserve tackle. “I was ready to go again in three weeks,” he said. He believes he’ll be completely ready to plug in and play in 2020, despite all the lost time in 2019. A native of Sydney, Australia, Mailata transitioned from being a front rower for the National Rugby League's South Sydney Rabbitohs to pursuing a dream to play football in this country when he entered the NFL's International Pathway Program and later trained at IMG Academy in Florida. The truth is that the Eagles don't even know for sure what kind of progress he's going to show because they haven't dealt with this kind of project before. The browser you are using is no longer supported on this site.