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Mailata to play in second Super Bowl | 01:00
Leadership means different things to different people, and in the case of Philadelphia Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata, it comes in many different forms.
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Sometimes you simply can’t miss it, like the sight of Mailata’s 6-foot-8, 365-pound frame driving defenders off the ball and into the turf.
Other times it’s less obvious, like the time Mailata was there to protect Jalen Hurts – not from a collapsing pocket or the impending pass rush, but from his own negative thoughts after the worst game of the Eagles quarterback’s career.
It may have been Mailata’s first season as starting left tackle and while he still had so much left to learn, one thing he already knew was what it meant to be a good teammate.
“He puts his palm on his shoulder and says to him he’s got his quarterback’s back no matter what,” Chris Franklin, Eagles beat reporter for NJ Advance Media, told foxsports.com.au.
“Jalen Hurts is obviously the guy, being the quarterback you’re always the guy on the team, but the fact that he won’t tolerate Hurts slander at all. He sees what this guy has done, he talks very highly of him, he’s got his back no matter what.”
So, when Hurts needed someone to pick him up, Mailata was there.
And he’s always been there ever since.
Calling out the offensive linemen, including himself, on the first practice of training camp for false starts and “unacceptable” mistakes.
Calling out the media, whether it was over suggestions last season that Nick Sirianni had lost the locker room or, even more recently, questions about Hurts’ standing as a quarterback.
But again, other times you have to look more closely and listen more closely, to have a full appreciation for what Jordan Mailata, the leader, looks like.
Because sometimes it is something as deceptively simple as the gentle strum of a guitar and dulcet tones of Mailata, sitting in the corner of the locker room, just sharing his gift with all of his teammates.
Even back-up tight end C.J. Uzomah.
Franklin often sees Uzomah and Mailata sitting in the locker room, “just talking about music”.
“He’s almost like a modern day Renaissance man in a way,” added Franklin.
“I can maul you on the field, push you back five to 10 yards and open a lane for Saquon Barkley and then all of a sudden by the way I can sing you a song if I wanted to as well with the guitar about what just happened.”
It is all that and more.
It is how Mailata was already a leader the moment he was taken by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 233rd overall pick in 2017, becoming the first and only player to be drafted from the program.
It is how Mailata, who didn’t even know how to put on a helmet correctly when he first arrived in America, is now playing in his second Super Bowl.
Mailata used to skip school on Monday mornings to watch the Super Bowl, but “mainly for the halftime show” he said back in 2023.
Now he himself is one of the main attractions. But early in his career, Mailata appeared to be heading on a different trajectory, and it makes the position he is in now all the more remarkable.
HOW MAILATA WENT FROM BRINK OF BEING CUT TO A FAN FAVOURITE
Mailata may now be one of the best players in the NFL at his position yet just five years ago, he was on the brink of being cut.
By that point, in many ways, Mailata had already defied expectations by being drafted into the NFL in the first place. But two years after hearing his name called and having gone through multiple injury setbacks, his future hung in the balance ahead of one of the final practices of the pre-season.
“He got frustrated that last play of training camp,” Franklin said, recalling the moment defensive end Joe Ostman beat Mailata, who then took his helmet off and slammed it to the ground.
“It was to the point where I was like, ‘Oh no, he’s going to get cut’.”
But they stood by him and now Mailata isn’t just still in the league, he’s also earning $66 million and was recently deemed PFF’s Best Run Blocker after finishing the season with a 94.9 run-blocking grade, trailing only Trent Williams’s 2021 campaign among all seasons by offensive linemen over the last five years.
“I think Australians should be proud of a guy who came across the ocean to make a name for himself,” Franklin said.
“He talks about making a name for himself and he wants to do that. Well, I think when you look back at it, he really has made a name for himself.”
Jordan Mailata has come a long way. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)Source: Getty ImagesHe has made a name for himself in Philadelphia too as a fan favourite.
“We’re a blue-collar city and a hardworking city and a lot of the fans are that way too, if you give a lot of effort and show that nastiness, that toughness and grit, they will love you,” Franklin told foxsports.com.au back in 2022.
“They’ve embraced him.”
More recently though, Mailata has only given Eagles fans even more reasons to embrace him — specifically when it comes to his interactions with the Philadelphia media.
Earlier last month, Mailata received the inaugural ‘Media Appreciation Award’ from the Eagles beat for his co-operation, openness and congeniality in dealing with local reporters.
Franklin has certainly felt the love from Mailata, recalling the way the Australian would cheerfully yell out his name every time he saw him in the locker room.
In fact, Mailata takes the time to know everyone’s names.
“They’ve got a lot on their mind,” Franklin said.
“They’ve got to learn the playbook and what have you.”
But still, Mailata makes the time — and that matters.
When it comes to his relationship with the media, however, what has really endeared the Philadelphia fanbase to Mailata is the way he, unapologetically, will shut down any question which could drive a wedge inside the four walls at Lincoln Financial Field.
Well, maybe not unapologetically, considering Mailata hilariously took the time to briefly say “sorry” before telling one reporter he “couldn’t give a f***” how his quarterback Jalen Hurts was perceived externally.
“I apologise for this; I couldn’t give a f***. I just wanna apologise. I’m sorry. I couldn’t give a rat’s a*** about whatever anybody says outside this building,” Mailata said.
“It ain’t gonna help us win championships and that’s our goal.”
It wasn’t the first time Mailata had gone viral for his responses to questions from journalists either.
Earlier in the year, when he was quizzed about reported drama before Hurts and star receiver A.J. Brown, Mailata swiftly told the media “we are moving on”.
“It is the Pittsburgh Steelers this week, not the A.J. Brown and Jalen show,” Mailata said.
Even at the start of the season, when the Eagles went 2-2 and pressure continued to build on Nick Sirianni after an early playoffs exit the year prior, Mailata was again not afraid to shy away from taking a strong stance in defence of his coach.
“He told them (reporters) I believe that we have the right guys in place here and it’s come to fruition when you look at the way this team is, the fact they’re back in the Super Bowl,” Franklin said.
“So, he’s always up front with us… it’s a tough job to be in, especially when under that microscope, but he takes the time to be open about it.”
SHOCK LEADERSHIP CALL AND SPECIAL BOND THAT BROUGHT BEST OUT OF MAILATA
While Mailata had already long been a strong presence in the Eagles locker room, this season has felt different.
And that is because it is. For the first time in his career, Mailata was selected as one of seven captains for Philadelphia.
Seven may seem like a lot, but there were actually nine captains last season so even with the Eagles reducing the number of people in the leadership group, Mailata still received the honour.
It caught him off guard.
“I felt like crying,” Mailata said in September.
“Because it really shocked me. Then after the first hour, I felt… that’s a huge deal.”
Mailata has emerged as a leader for the Eagles. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)Source: Getty ImagesThat was particularly true given who was missing from the Eagles this season.
“There was a bit of a void,” Franklin said, referring to the loss of six-time All-Pro center Jason Kelce, who was Mailata’s screensaver ahead of Super Bowl LVII.
“I think with him spending so much time with Kelce, he got to see the type of leadership style that he had… Jordan has stepped up and he’s become that guy.”
It didn’t take long for Mailata to prove it either when he pulled up the offensive line for three false starts on the first day of training camp, organising for the group to do a series of sprints as a result.
Why? Because that’s what Kelce would have done. Because upholding his standards means “holding each other accountable”. And if people don’t like it?
“That’s too damn bad,” Mailata said.
“We’re trying to build a winning culture here, and that’s the way you’ve got to get it done.”
“Every time we do something like that, from everything I learned from Jason, it’s maintaining the standard.”
That’s not the only way Mailata is helping carry on Kelce’s legacy either. In one minicamp session during Mailata’s second season, he was pulled aside by Kelce and Lane Johnson to discuss angles and proper technique after being moved to the right side of the line.
Now Franklin said Mailata, who is nearing the end of his seventh season in the league, has been operating almost like a “conduit” through Jeff Stoutland, Philadelphia’s offensive line guru.
“He’ll pull aside some guys that are maybe on the practice squad and he will have these long talks with them,” added Franklin.
“He’s been telling them how, ‘Hey maybe you should do this or this is what I’ve seen, this is how you counter with that’ and led in helping develop other guys as well too.”
This, again, bears repeating is a guy who admitted in 2018, when he was first starting his NFL journey, that his knowledge of the league was “very limited”.
“It’s like going into it blindfolded,” Mailata said on NFL Undiscovered.
“Everything is new, it’s a big mystery.”
And here he is now. The boy from Bankstown once again playing on the NFL’s biggest stage.
A lot has changed since that 13-7 loss to the New York Giants in 2021, where Hurts, after throwing three interceptions, cut a solitary figure — battered and broken — in the middle of MetLife Stadium.
The Eagles will have been to two Super Bowls since that loss. They also won four games in a row after it, a point which wasn’t lost on Hurts.
“After that moment, a lot of wins started to come,” he said.
Hurts was speaking at that point to reporters ahead of the 2024-25 season and after it was announced that Mailata had been announced as one of the team’s seven captains.
When asked what it was about Mailata that made him deserving of that honour, Hurts’ response was simple and yet powerful.
“He’s consistently who he is,” the Eagles quarterback said.
“He has been a guy who has been here for a good length of time. (He’s) very passionate about what he does, very uplifting, has built a chip over time in a good way. I just love him. He’s there for his teammates.”
Like he was there for Hurts after the worst game of his young career.
Like he was there for Saquon Barkley during his 60-yard touchdown run and later A.J. Brown, having used him to pancake three Commanders players in the process of setting up the hole for his superstar running back.
And like he was and always will be there in the locker room or the rec room, which Franklin described as the players’ “home away from home”, laughing with his teammates.
“You always hear the laughter from back there,” Franklin added.
“He’s trying to get to know his teammates, he’s trying to get these guys together. You don’t have to give a movie speech… it’s the little things that he does too that help out too.”
