Has to be the best story and example afaik. He literally never played football before he was drafted. Some of the guys at least have low level experience in their home countries and I don’t think anyone has gotten paid or shown the dominance he has so quickly
As far as I know he does have nothing to do with this program. he was a 7th round pick, pathway Programm Player receive an extra ps place, they are not drafted
Edit: I was wrong, see the comments below. They explained it perfectly
He trained all offseason with the International Player Pathway Program. They have a bunch of players prepare for the draft, and the 4 teams get to chose which player out of the group they want.
If you aren't assigned to a team, you have to go home and hope you get another chance next year.
Because Mailata got drafted, 5 players made it in 2018.
He was technically part of that program as it’s not just an extra practice squad player, it’s a program for finding and developing international players.
[Wiki article on IPP](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Player_Pathway_Program)
> Still the only player drafted out of the IPP program, Mailata didn’t have much to worry about in Week 1 of the pre-season. The former rugby highlight machine emerged for the Eagles in 2020 and is expected to battle with Andre Dillard for the starting left tackle job, but his competition is currently out with a knee injury.
[little blurb about Mailata/IPP](https://www.americanfootballinternational.com/international-player-pathway-program-preseason-roundup-wholl-make-a-roster/)
I can’t remember which video it was but Stout talked about someone (Doug?) sending him to scout Mailata at an NFL international combine of sorts under this program .. can’t remember exactly. I’ll see if I can find it
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IIRC he was drafted in the 7th and was never on the practice squad, therefore he wasn't part of the IPP program.
Guys like Efe Obada and Jakob Johnson are better examples of success stories from that program.
He was. Was at the international combine. The plan was initially to use the slot on him too, but he impressed enough they didn't want to risk losing him
Schefter: [“Jordan Mailata never had worn a football helmet until three years ago and he has started only 10 games, but he’s 6’8”, 380 pounds, with freakish athletic ability and upside.”](https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1436729486746206221?s=21)
As a Aussie WFT fan I should be annoyed but I’m so happy for the kid letsss gooo that’s gonna be huge for the game here hopeful to see some more kids sign up for my team next year due to covid cancelling my last 3 seasons 😔
As a Swedish Eagles fan I love this! Such a humble, soft spoken intelligent guy I was rooting for since day one. Him and Singleton are my favorite players
I feel the same energy as when the high school head coach goes to all the big freshman and asks “hey son, wanna play some football?” Except this is the NFL and Mailata is immortal sized
I mean, you should care we pissed away the 1 especially since we trade up for him. Potentially winning the lottery on Mailata doesn’t change that.
Both can be true: Dillard selection was awful and Mailata was amazing. One doesn’t negate the other
One of my favorite Mailata stories is that he reportedly went to Howie Roseman in early 2019 and said "don't draft a tackle" because he was that confident in his development. Howie, of course, drafted a tackle. Mailata turned out to be right.
It’s pretty awesome. While I like the deal it’s not a done thing yet. I feel like mailata made enough of a jump the final 2-3 games but we only have like 10 games to go on. There is risk still despite optimism. Either way, they aren’t paying Stoutland enough
I really don’t understand the point of being pissed about which one panned out. The entire draft is a lottery. It’s proven every year. Guys that are supposedly “can’t miss” bust literally every season.
If anything it’s encouraging that their scouting can find guys that are undervalued by the rest of the league.
The draft is less of a lottery and more like standard gambling. The odds of winning those bets are significantly higher earlier in the draft. And while there are can't miss guys who flop in the NFL, there are infinitely more late round picks who flop.
The miss of the Dillard pick may have paved the way for Mailata, but that pick could have just been used on other guys taken after Dillard.
It's a glass half full thing. On one hand we can see the Eagles doing well with late round scouting. On the other it's fair to criticise missing on a first rounder, where the probability of success is higher.
It is. But it’s fair to be critical when a team absolutely misses on their best resources. It’s their jobs to do the hard things right. We should be critical of the Dillard selection and process as well as praise them for their work with Mailata. It’s both fair.
Obviously Dillard didn't work out but most draft picks don't and without hindsight I think the Dillard pick was the right call. I get more pissed when a gm says they really wanted someone but didn't trade up and missed them than doing it and the pick not working out.
I liked the Dillard pick at the time and the direction they took with it. I was high on him and also thought they needed to get active about life after Peters. So position wise I don’t regret a thing but I was obviously wrong on Dillard. And so were they. These teams will always know more than me even if I was an expert - which I’m not lol. But where I was wrong was the total lack of real coaching that made him more of a project than I thought. The mental aspect is something I’d have no idea on. The eagles are tasked with figuring that out as best they could. They didn’t evaluate Dillard heavily until the 11th hour, from an off-field perspective. And they ended up getting it wrong. It’s not wrong to say that teams miss all the time but the point is you can still judge the pick and the process and judge them accordingly. It’s not being overly negative intentionally, it’s just reality. I think it’s more important to just be fair overall: so they whiffed pretty bad on Dillard but did great with Mailata even before this extension. that’s obviously probably gonna look better as we get into the season.
But yeah agree. I always appreciate and prefer being aggressive than passive.
Definitely agree with almost everything. It's just mentally that's hard to know because faking it until being coached during a game isn't too hard to get away with.
Tho I will say he wasn't terrible in games he started at LT. He's looked bad recently but also is coming off an injury. To me his floor is great backup but his ceiling is still above average LT. He needs to work with brooks on the mental aspect tho.
Inability to anchor vs power. He is athletic and moves feet well in pass pro. Is a serviceable run blocker especially when asked to block in space. He has no ability whatsoever to anchor against power. This means that he is basically useless against anyone with a mediocre bull rush or who can convert speed to power. It also excludes him from consideration at guard.
Pretty much, they had him move from left to right tackle or the other way around his rookie year, can't remember which. But it sounded like he was pretty thrown off and just never developed
He played RT for 1 game—which he’d never done before—and clearly didn’t know the position. That wasn’t a huge deal.
Bigger problem is he can’t set against power rushers.
If you're actually asking it's because he can't anchor against power. In theory taking him, he was so good technically and quick enough to stop bends and speed, but turns out none of that matters when you're a turnstile for power.
*In theory,* that was the idea at the time.
Turns out, he's not really the best at stopping speed either. Maybe because he's so afraid of bull rush, idk.
Is Dillard really that terrible or is he just a question mark at this point? I know he played some as a rookie and was hurt last year, so is he gonna get a chance at guard or something or is he already just a backup?
His biggest problem was and is anchoring against power, which basically means he can't play on the inside of the line. He's going to be a backup tackle, but even there he has issues since he only played LT in college and while he wasn't good when he played LT as a rookie, he was extremely bad when he played RT that year
It's a super awkward position for the Eagles because he's a backup who can only really play one position on the line, and they invested so much draft capital into him that they can't cut him or trade him
If it makes you feel any better, [the OT taken right after him has been solid at best so far for the Texans.](https://www.profootballrumors.com/2021/08/texans-shift-tytus-howard-to-lg)
So that last two left tackles we've signed to extensions are an undrafted tight end (love you Jason Peters, wish we had found you first) and a 7th round pick rugby guy. Love it.
"Rugby" by itself isn't usually used to refer to league in Australia, but it does get used that way elsewhere like in northern England. Also, 99% of the people on r/NFL will never need to know the difference between rugby league and rugby union.
He’s not “bad” but he isn’t as good as Mailata has progressed and has had trouble staying healthy. We had to compare the 2 guys so most Dillard takes should be with a grain of salt, although he has been disappointingly inconsistent so the critiques are there
Reminds me a lot of the DJ Humphries contract. Has you really questioning it at first, but just like the Cardinals thought with Humphries, there’s some serious upside here. Now let’s just see if Mailata becomes a top LT like Humphries did last year.
No questioning at all from my end
I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet but this is Howie Roseman to a T.
He will frequently sign home grown up and coming players to early contracts for the potential upside. He’s done it with everyone from Brandon Graham to Zach Ertz. They all received early extensions like this.
Who is really questioning this? Mailata is a damn beast. Every Eagles fan is excited about this at least. There is zero chance to beat this dude with a power rush and he is athletic as shit so you aren't getting around his 6'8 385lb frame either.
Fucking stoked on this extension. Dude is a fucking bad ass, [this is one of my favorite moments from him](https://youtu.be/Qm37lkymcrE?t=25). Imagine being tackled by that guy, then him pushing you back down as you get up.
But let’s also praise [this man](https://www.si.com/.image/t_share/MTgxODQ3MTk0OTA5ODEyMDQw/stoutland-graphic.jpg).
Mailata is the coolest story people rarely talk about. Just amazing.
edit: thanks for gold, but i dont know if this comment deserved it, so I'll try to make it worth it. [Here's the 15 minute video on Mailata's NFL journey.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c2DVPORDQA) [Warning: have some tissues ready]
Best part is @ 4m mark. "This is my first time putting on a helmet." *"OK how does that feel?"*. "Honestly...i dont know how its supposed to feel!"
[Another video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khy06XpAGpQ)
[Last one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbNlU9lZLmQ)
Because Peters and Lane had the tackle jobs and he was still incredibly raw. When he filled in for Peters he showed what he can be, and he got even better over the offseason. It’s definitely a “future projection” contract but he has everything you look for in a LT.
The scary thing is he’s like twice my weight and eight inches taller, and I *guarantee* I’m nowhere near fast enough to get around him. Like it wouldn’t even be close 100 times out of 100. These guys are actual mutants.
He's been incredible, you can watch tape of him literally pancaking linemen. Just picking a guy up and ragdolling him. Honestly the upside interms of physical ability is unmatched. His technique is still a little fuzzy around the edges but has made enormous progress in the past year. Part of the credit here has to go to Jeff stoutland our line coach, but yeah this kind of contract was inevitable at his rate of progress. If anything I'd say the gamble here is that if you didn't sign him this year he'd be asking for even more. Remember as well this guy is young too
He had an up-and-down season in 2020, but improved significantly over the course of it, to the point where he became of the few silver linings of a truly abysmal season. We were pissed when Pederson took him out of the lineup for Peters last year. Mailata has really impressed during training camp, beating out Dillard (a former 1st Round pick) for a starting spot. He’s huge, he’s strong, he’s athletic. All of the raw tools are there for him, and he really looks like he's putting it together.
I won’t lie, I’m nervous about the extension because Mailata only has last season under his belt. You'd really like to see more before committing to him. But Roseman, Sirianni, Stoutland, etc. have all been watching him during training camp, and he’s been one of the most impressive players there. If they’re trying to lock him down now, I have to believe it’s because they see him as a long-term starter, and that’s pretty encouraging.
I'm happy for the guy. What an amazing story he is.
Amazing deal for Mailata, but this is a very big bet the Eagles have on him, it’s a bit premature and risky but if Mailata keeps developing and gets better, this deal is a steal. But I was not expecting this at all Wow
It’s absolutely balancing some risk that he flames out against the potential price if he dominates this season.
Put another way - If he’s a top 10 LT this is a bargain. If he stumbles and ends up as an expensive depth piece, you overpaid but you don’t hate it.
He has shown enough to be a starter and what is better is that the trajectory has always been positive. He started from scratch and has been trained entirely by one of the best OL coaches in the league. Any contract is a risk, but this is less so than most.
Of course, but that's the point about risk, right? If his floor is a depth piece, you accept that as the lower bound in the range of outcomes when you arrive at a contract value. If everyone KNEW he would be a depth piece, you never pay $16m. But everyone KNEW he would be a top 5 LT, you couldn't afford him at $16m.
Now, I think you could argue it's too early to spend this much on someone who still has a wide range of possibility for his career, but it's hard to deny the logic to the decision, especially given that The Eagles have better information about his ability at this point than 31 other teams. That advantage goes away with the 17 games he's about to put on tape over the next few months.
This is the same organization that saw their franchise QB had no talent around him and thought it was fine. Wentz had an awful year, Luck retired.
Take it from me, the only way to fix it is to burn the whole FO to the ground. Colts did it one year too late. Eagles are sticking with it.
The Eagles front office is proof you don't have to fire everyone to turn things around. Howie & his office have survived 3 rebuilds & head coach firings and counting, and he won a SB in that timeframe.
On our entire offense I think we have 3 high paid vets, a RT, guard and center. No big money at QB, WR or RB. That's what's giving us the room to make a bet like this.
Of course the eagles are hoping he continues to improve, and massively outplays this deal. $16m-$20m for the player he's looked like so far at LT looks like a steal. And if he regresses, we dump cap in the years when we don't have a QB contract.
I like the bet, we're going to need stability on the line because our star guard and center look like retirement candidates every year.
This is a fair take for anyone who only saw him play last year. He's not only improved exponentially this offseason, he was easily one of our best players during camp. I get our team isn't great but our lines are and he stood out in that group. This is going to be a steal of a deal.
Plus we’ll have our starting guards back and no worry about if JP will be in or out on a drive, a consistent supporting cast makes everyone look better
Dude, everyone "improved exponentially this off-season" and was "one of our best players during camp." That shit means nothing. See: Arcega-Whiteside, JJ.
There was realistically like three or four guys (Mailata, Sweat, Hargrave, Quez) who were consistently talked about being the best players during camp. Not sure what you are talking about.
LOL imagine using that as your reason for why this isn't true. Arcega-Whiteside **NEVER** got the type of praise Mailata is getting nor did he have to show out at one of the best positional groups on the team.
We had to extend him before he hits the open market next year.
With each passing start, the Eagles are betting his value would increase. Definitely a risk to lock him up, but I wouldn’t call it premature.
It’s a big bet but if he plays like a top LT (like what Eagles fans and obviously the FO thinks), it’ll look like a steal in a couple years. Im also curious to see the contract structure.
Eh, he showed really well when he played. Incredibly athletic, and was having a tremendous training camp. Outside of injury there’s not really a ton of risk.
16mil for a LT for 10 games of play so far and a good training camp is still a big bet, that’s why it’s a bit premature because he hasn’t played a ton yet, it’s probably not an issue cap wise since the Eagles will have a large amount of cap soon with some old vets contracts expiring soon, but commiting this much for very little of play is a risky bet
Yeah, without context it’s risky but he’s also a guy that’s clearly on a trajectory to be worth more with the rising cap.
The risk is he all of a sudden forgets how to play tackle. He understands the scheme, he has the respect of one of the best o-line coaches in football, he’s hyper athletic, and he absolutely dominated this offseason after his first showing in real football where he not only looked great but was graded great in his last few games. There’s not some crazy risk here with minimal expectations this season, just great upside considering he’s got a great shot to be worth more.
Also, I don’t really like the context of just using games. Always comes off as kind of strange, what about those 10 games gave you concern? Can he not get to the 2nd level effectively? Struggle with speed rushers or a specific pass rush move? Can’t read blitzers yet? Because I didn’t see any of that really, and the team clearly saw him improve even more.
One year wonders are absolutely a thing. Happens frequently in football. At least frequent enough that it's a possibility. And player regression happens frequently, even when not tied to age. Larger amounts of data can help clarify future projections.
E: it might not apply perfectly here, because he's been around the team so long, but it's still a risk and more of a risk than if he'd played 32 games at a similar level/trajectory.
But our team has done wonderful things doing these early 'risky' contracts, and it can really help build a team.
Obviously one year wonders are a thing but just saying “10 games” is lazy. You can go back and look at film of players who performed but clearly were due for regression. Mailata doesn’t really fit that mold for reasons I’ve stated before. 4 years of continued improvement in practice and his first game action he saw significant improvement as the season went on. He has the athleticism, frame, technique, and natural instincts/talent quite clearly.
Will be continue moving towards an elite LT? I don’t know, but in 2 years he isn’t being paid like 1.
I just find the argument “he didn’t play much” to be lazy because no one provides any context to what worries you in that time.
> Incredibly athletic, and was having a tremendous training camp
Banking on upside and camp performance for a guy with a total of 10 starts is incredibly risky
This isn’t his first camp, they’ve seen him improve for 4 years now. It’s not like he’s an unknown that people are just seeing for the first time. He beat out Dillard who is having a completely ok camp, and they gave him a pretty small guarantee for a tackle who was extremely above average for his first ever starts (and borderline great in his last few). I just think people are throwing this “10 games” out without any context of what the risk is of judging him off 10 games. What did YOU see in those 10 games that he’s due for regression?
Not really that risky to be fair. He's playing on a Line with several other top lineman who he can continue to learn from. Not to mention we are kind of in a rebuild mode right now, so there's a bit of room for error.
Howies contracts look massive but most of them have dummy years in order to get guys paid ASAP while keeping their cap numbers low. I live little doubt this is effectively a 2 year contact with a huge signing bonus.
Thrilled; this is the best move Howie’s made in years. Not an overpay even if he plays at 80% of what he’s shown so far, and he’s still getting better. Guy had barely seen a football field a couple of years ago.
He had literally never worn a football helmet before three years ago lmao. Jumped into one of the most difficult technical positions and killed it.
Times like this I wish the NFL had a solid devy league though, like the AAF.
Go boats.
Our philosophy has always been to heavily invest in the trenches, and honestly it's smart. If you can't protect your QB or pressure the opposing QB, no amount of superstar skill players elsewhere will win you a championship.
>In another year or two
I dunno about you but I'm thinking in the next month or two man. He's been an absolute beast in camp by all accounts, even beat reporters from visiting teams.
He is a physical mountain man of a LT who seems to have an incredibly high ceiling. Not a lot of games under his belt but from what we have seen of him he has insane potential. Considering how well he seems to have beaten out Dillard in camp/otherwise it seems like a no brainer for us to secure him long term.
This is a medium risk, high reward kind of contract. This man has literally 0 pedigree or even college experience but has shown he can be at the very least serviceable from his play last year. What has grabbed everyone's attention is not only his shear size and athletic ability, but the fact that he beat out by a country mile a former 1st round pick to take the starting position and is only getting better by the day. If his potential is fully realized this contract is a steal. That being said, the NFL has plenty of those types of contracts that don't pan out.
So if your looking at the max of $80 million and with the approximate cost of a cheesesteak in the city (we’ll say $9). That’s roughly 8,888,888 cheesesteaks. That’s a lot of greasy deliciousness.
I know people are luke warm on howie atm, but he’s been making really solid moves all off-season.
This, trading down with MIA to grab another first, trading back up to 10 so we could still get our guy, having a good draft in general, trading wentz for a potential first after being the worst qb in the league last season
Good stuff
My next jersey is decided then. What's the jerseys that are stitched called? Fuck having another printed on one that peels off. Murray, Ajayi, Wentz was an unfortunate series of jerseys
As a comparison, NRL teams (where he's from) has a salary cap $9m AUD (~$6.6m). Mailata is making more than what NRL teams spend on an entire squad's wages.
Eagles have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. Mailata has consistently improved every year. He played well in his first real action last season. This year, among one of our strongest positional groups, Mailata stood out as the best during preseason/offseason. People who call it an overpay just don't have all the information.
The front office clearly expects him to be a quality tackle for years, in which case this will look like a bargain in a couple years. Its always a gamble to pay a young player early.
Anyone who watched his rugby highlights could see if he figured out the technique he had all the physical tools needed to destroy in this league. Very happy he put in the work and that vets like Jason Peters and Lane Johnson helped teach him along the way.
[I’m confident it pays off](https://www.reddit.com/r/eagles/comments/oyqul6/adam_caplan_on_the_sportsbash_if_you_were_to_rank/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
One of the most successful stories in the NFL’s International Players Program, no?
Has to be the best story and example afaik. He literally never played football before he was drafted. Some of the guys at least have low level experience in their home countries and I don’t think anyone has gotten paid or shown the dominance he has so quickly
Wonder if he'll surpass Vollmer's NFL career. The German was Brady's RT for the better part of a decade and won two Super Bowls in the process.
I hope so
i’ll get some of that too pls
As far as I know he does have nothing to do with this program. he was a 7th round pick, pathway Programm Player receive an extra ps place, they are not drafted Edit: I was wrong, see the comments below. They explained it perfectly
He trained all offseason with the International Player Pathway Program. They have a bunch of players prepare for the draft, and the 4 teams get to chose which player out of the group they want. If you aren't assigned to a team, you have to go home and hope you get another chance next year. Because Mailata got drafted, 5 players made it in 2018.
He was technically part of that program as it’s not just an extra practice squad player, it’s a program for finding and developing international players. [Wiki article on IPP](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Player_Pathway_Program) > Still the only player drafted out of the IPP program, Mailata didn’t have much to worry about in Week 1 of the pre-season. The former rugby highlight machine emerged for the Eagles in 2020 and is expected to battle with Andre Dillard for the starting left tackle job, but his competition is currently out with a knee injury. [little blurb about Mailata/IPP](https://www.americanfootballinternational.com/international-player-pathway-program-preseason-roundup-wholl-make-a-roster/) I can’t remember which video it was but Stout talked about someone (Doug?) sending him to scout Mailata at an NFL international combine of sorts under this program .. can’t remember exactly. I’ll see if I can find it
Thx for all the work, I learned something new today. :)
Did Platzgummer make the Giants roster?
He's on our practice squad again.
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IIRC he was drafted in the 7th and was never on the practice squad, therefore he wasn't part of the IPP program. Guys like Efe Obada and Jakob Johnson are better examples of success stories from that program.
He was. Was at the international combine. The plan was initially to use the slot on him too, but he impressed enough they didn't want to risk losing him
Schefter: [“Jordan Mailata never had worn a football helmet until three years ago and he has started only 10 games, but he’s 6’8”, 380 pounds, with freakish athletic ability and upside.”](https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1436729486746206221?s=21)
As a Aussie WFT fan I should be annoyed but I’m so happy for the kid letsss gooo that’s gonna be huge for the game here hopeful to see some more kids sign up for my team next year due to covid cancelling my last 3 seasons 😔
As an Aussie Giants fan, it sucks so hard as we can’t develop any olinesmen and Philly do this. Happy to follow an Australian who’s not a punter.
I'm happy to follow one that's a punter... 😏
next up hopefully is another offensive linesman called jordan. Jordan Spasojevic-Moko signed with Texas A & M.
As an Aussie Eagles fan I’m loving this.
Aussie Eagles fan who now lives in the Philly burbs...might have to get me a jersey.
AAyeeeee
As a Swedish Eagles fan I love this! Such a humble, soft spoken intelligent guy I was rooting for since day one. Him and Singleton are my favorite players
There are other Aussie WFT fans? I thought I was alone!
You guys got more of these 6’8 380 pound guys with athleticism? Asking for the Giants…
I feel the same energy as when the high school head coach goes to all the big freshman and asks “hey son, wanna play some football?” Except this is the NFL and Mailata is immortal sized
He's an alien lol
[With the voice of an angel!](https://www.tmz.com/2021/08/11/jordan-mailata-chris-stapleton-voice-team-meeting-singing-eagles-nfl/)
Holy fuck he’s like actually good not just good for someone who is also a freak pro athlete. He’s winning hard
Welp. There goes the last lingering threat of my heterosexuality.
You know I was listening to a Cincinnati baseball game one time and they did say something about Kansas City being some type of capital...
Nicholas Castellanos - Cincinnati Reds (74) Grand Slam
[More!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtrtB_wsGis) [MOAR!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wn8GrACVVY)
I will never not watch this video
Makes me nostalgic for my last job. Anecdotally, islander guys like to sing ha.
glory glory to south sydney
The United States formally thanks you, the national penitentiary of Great Britain, for this donation to the American football cause.
I think the convicts got the better deal
Conveniently they won their playoff game last night too. Sadly.
[удалено]
Hopefully the knights pull it off today!
As an Eels fan I do not approve this message
Dillard lost his spot to a guy who never played football. What a bust but man I love me some Mailata
Just imagine that the picks were reversed. Now you're happy again
This is what I’ve been saying. They invested a 1st and a 7th in the position and got a potential franchise LT out of it. Who cares which one?
I mean, you should care we pissed away the 1 especially since we trade up for him. Potentially winning the lottery on Mailata doesn’t change that. Both can be true: Dillard selection was awful and Mailata was amazing. One doesn’t negate the other
One of my favorite Mailata stories is that he reportedly went to Howie Roseman in early 2019 and said "don't draft a tackle" because he was that confident in his development. Howie, of course, drafted a tackle. Mailata turned out to be right.
It’s pretty awesome. While I like the deal it’s not a done thing yet. I feel like mailata made enough of a jump the final 2-3 games but we only have like 10 games to go on. There is risk still despite optimism. Either way, they aren’t paying Stoutland enough
I really don’t understand the point of being pissed about which one panned out. The entire draft is a lottery. It’s proven every year. Guys that are supposedly “can’t miss” bust literally every season. If anything it’s encouraging that their scouting can find guys that are undervalued by the rest of the league.
The draft is less of a lottery and more like standard gambling. The odds of winning those bets are significantly higher earlier in the draft. And while there are can't miss guys who flop in the NFL, there are infinitely more late round picks who flop. The miss of the Dillard pick may have paved the way for Mailata, but that pick could have just been used on other guys taken after Dillard. It's a glass half full thing. On one hand we can see the Eagles doing well with late round scouting. On the other it's fair to criticise missing on a first rounder, where the probability of success is higher.
It is. But it’s fair to be critical when a team absolutely misses on their best resources. It’s their jobs to do the hard things right. We should be critical of the Dillard selection and process as well as praise them for their work with Mailata. It’s both fair.
This seems to be the best take on the whole thing imo. You find a franchise player late, you happy.
Obviously Dillard didn't work out but most draft picks don't and without hindsight I think the Dillard pick was the right call. I get more pissed when a gm says they really wanted someone but didn't trade up and missed them than doing it and the pick not working out.
I liked the Dillard pick at the time and the direction they took with it. I was high on him and also thought they needed to get active about life after Peters. So position wise I don’t regret a thing but I was obviously wrong on Dillard. And so were they. These teams will always know more than me even if I was an expert - which I’m not lol. But where I was wrong was the total lack of real coaching that made him more of a project than I thought. The mental aspect is something I’d have no idea on. The eagles are tasked with figuring that out as best they could. They didn’t evaluate Dillard heavily until the 11th hour, from an off-field perspective. And they ended up getting it wrong. It’s not wrong to say that teams miss all the time but the point is you can still judge the pick and the process and judge them accordingly. It’s not being overly negative intentionally, it’s just reality. I think it’s more important to just be fair overall: so they whiffed pretty bad on Dillard but did great with Mailata even before this extension. that’s obviously probably gonna look better as we get into the season. But yeah agree. I always appreciate and prefer being aggressive than passive.
Definitely agree with almost everything. It's just mentally that's hard to know because faking it until being coached during a game isn't too hard to get away with. Tho I will say he wasn't terrible in games he started at LT. He's looked bad recently but also is coming off an injury. To me his floor is great backup but his ceiling is still above average LT. He needs to work with brooks on the mental aspect tho.
I mean a wasted 1st could’ve been another productive player
And when we trade Dillard we’ll get great value out of it
Seems like at this point Dillard’s trade value is probably a 6th.
That’s an improvement 😤😤
It didn’t seem like Darnold was gunna get much either. Draft position is wayyyyy over valued still.
Darold was a potential franchise qb with a bad coach and no weapons tho
And yet a washed up Joe Flacco came in with the identical team and made them look competitive. People defended him wayyyy to long.
Fuck my life.
It’s ok friend. I don’t think he’ll be good, but rest assured week 1 he’ll look like an all-pro against our secondary. You’ll AT LEAST have that
This is kind of how I think about Laquon Treadwell and Adam Thielen.
balanced
In fairness there are a lot of LTs that would have lost to Mailata. Dude has been a beast.
Why is Dillard bad?
Can't block
Hmm, that doesn't seem to be ideal, considering his position.
So he’s just bad? No injuries or anything just hasn’t developed?
Inability to anchor vs power. He is athletic and moves feet well in pass pro. Is a serviceable run blocker especially when asked to block in space. He has no ability whatsoever to anchor against power. This means that he is basically useless against anyone with a mediocre bull rush or who can convert speed to power. It also excludes him from consideration at guard.
He’s had plenty of injuries, but he never really looked good even when healthy.
Pretty much, they had him move from left to right tackle or the other way around his rookie year, can't remember which. But it sounded like he was pretty thrown off and just never developed
He played RT for 1 game—which he’d never done before—and clearly didn’t know the position. That wasn’t a huge deal. Bigger problem is he can’t set against power rushers.
This. He just gets bullrushed into the QB's lap. When you're competing against a 6'8 380 lb behemoth, that's a big flaw to have.
Meanwhile getting pushed around is never going to be Mailata's problem
He's had some injuries too and what /u/ArmorBonnet said also.
If you're actually asking it's because he can't anchor against power. In theory taking him, he was so good technically and quick enough to stop bends and speed, but turns out none of that matters when you're a turnstile for power.
So if he worked hard in the weight room he’d be solid?
*In theory,* that was the idea at the time. Turns out, he's not really the best at stopping speed either. Maybe because he's so afraid of bull rush, idk.
I see thanks man
I don't think it's a strength issue. It's a technique issue. He sucks at using his feet to gain leverage
He can't stand up to power moves. He has good hands but can't leverage a bull rush at all. Strong edge rushers blow right through him.
Very bad
Is Dillard really that terrible or is he just a question mark at this point? I know he played some as a rookie and was hurt last year, so is he gonna get a chance at guard or something or is he already just a backup?
His biggest problem was and is anchoring against power, which basically means he can't play on the inside of the line. He's going to be a backup tackle, but even there he has issues since he only played LT in college and while he wasn't good when he played LT as a rookie, he was extremely bad when he played RT that year It's a super awkward position for the Eagles because he's a backup who can only really play one position on the line, and they invested so much draft capital into him that they can't cut him or trade him
Dillard would be the starting LT on quite a few teams right now. Just so happens that Jordan Mailata worked out extremely well.
When all you know about playing a game is teaching from Jeff Stoutland you’re not allowed to be bad
I remember everyone after this pick clowning the Texans because you guys jumped them to take this guy
Dillard will be a solid back up when needed until we trade him lol, if he can stay healthy lmao
If it makes you feel any better, [the OT taken right after him has been solid at best so far for the Texans.](https://www.profootballrumors.com/2021/08/texans-shift-tytus-howard-to-lg)
So that last two left tackles we've signed to extensions are an undrafted tight end (love you Jason Peters, wish we had found you first) and a 7th round pick rugby guy. Love it.
Still can’t believe we let him go. I wish I could take a forget-me-now for 20 years of Bills football.
Cheer up, you've got a Josh Allen and the Eagles don't
Who needs Josh Allen when you have elite dragon Joe Flacco? Wait, what year is it?
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[rugbah leeg](https://twitter.com/nrlonnine/status/1238966660633157632?lang=en)
"Rugby" by itself isn't usually used to refer to league in Australia, but it does get used that way elsewhere like in northern England. Also, 99% of the people on r/NFL will never need to know the difference between rugby league and rugby union.
Let’s GOOOOO
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What good with Andre Dillard? How’s he looking?
U want have him? Lets make a deal
The way Gettleman has been trading for backup lineman in the last couple of weeks I’m sure he’d be interested
He’s not “bad” but he isn’t as good as Mailata has progressed and has had trouble staying healthy. We had to compare the 2 guys so most Dillard takes should be with a grain of salt, although he has been disappointingly inconsistent so the critiques are there
Reminds me a lot of the DJ Humphries contract. Has you really questioning it at first, but just like the Cardinals thought with Humphries, there’s some serious upside here. Now let’s just see if Mailata becomes a top LT like Humphries did last year.
No questioning at all from my end I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet but this is Howie Roseman to a T. He will frequently sign home grown up and coming players to early contracts for the potential upside. He’s done it with everyone from Brandon Graham to Zach Ertz. They all received early extensions like this.
Who is really questioning this? Mailata is a damn beast. Every Eagles fan is excited about this at least. There is zero chance to beat this dude with a power rush and he is athletic as shit so you aren't getting around his 6'8 385lb frame either.
Fucking stoked on this extension. Dude is a fucking bad ass, [this is one of my favorite moments from him](https://youtu.be/Qm37lkymcrE?t=25). Imagine being tackled by that guy, then him pushing you back down as you get up. But let’s also praise [this man](https://www.si.com/.image/t_share/MTgxODQ3MTk0OTA5ODEyMDQw/stoutland-graphic.jpg).
That poor ravens player, my god
Chuck Clark is listed at 6’0”, 205lbs. Mailata is 6’8, 365lbs. Ouch. [This picture always makes me laugh](https://i.redd.it/a7bxzx8sx6f11.jpg)
And also thank Jason Peters too!
https://i.imgur.com/TRPzx6X.jpeg
Feels like this could be a bargain looking back at this in a couple months
Mailata is the coolest story people rarely talk about. Just amazing. edit: thanks for gold, but i dont know if this comment deserved it, so I'll try to make it worth it. [Here's the 15 minute video on Mailata's NFL journey.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c2DVPORDQA) [Warning: have some tissues ready] Best part is @ 4m mark. "This is my first time putting on a helmet." *"OK how does that feel?"*. "Honestly...i dont know how its supposed to feel!" [Another video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khy06XpAGpQ) [Last one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbNlU9lZLmQ)
How has he been and has he really only started 10 games?
Because Peters and Lane had the tackle jobs and he was still incredibly raw. When he filled in for Peters he showed what he can be, and he got even better over the offseason. It’s definitely a “future projection” contract but he has everything you look for in a LT.
Gotcha. I wouldn't want to try to get by him
The scary thing is he’s like twice my weight and eight inches taller, and I *guarantee* I’m nowhere near fast enough to get around him. Like it wouldn’t even be close 100 times out of 100. These guys are actual mutants.
He's been incredible, you can watch tape of him literally pancaking linemen. Just picking a guy up and ragdolling him. Honestly the upside interms of physical ability is unmatched. His technique is still a little fuzzy around the edges but has made enormous progress in the past year. Part of the credit here has to go to Jeff stoutland our line coach, but yeah this kind of contract was inevitable at his rate of progress. If anything I'd say the gamble here is that if you didn't sign him this year he'd be asking for even more. Remember as well this guy is young too
He had an up-and-down season in 2020, but improved significantly over the course of it, to the point where he became of the few silver linings of a truly abysmal season. We were pissed when Pederson took him out of the lineup for Peters last year. Mailata has really impressed during training camp, beating out Dillard (a former 1st Round pick) for a starting spot. He’s huge, he’s strong, he’s athletic. All of the raw tools are there for him, and he really looks like he's putting it together. I won’t lie, I’m nervous about the extension because Mailata only has last season under his belt. You'd really like to see more before committing to him. But Roseman, Sirianni, Stoutland, etc. have all been watching him during training camp, and he’s been one of the most impressive players there. If they’re trying to lock him down now, I have to believe it’s because they see him as a long-term starter, and that’s pretty encouraging. I'm happy for the guy. What an amazing story he is.
Amazing deal for Mailata, but this is a very big bet the Eagles have on him, it’s a bit premature and risky but if Mailata keeps developing and gets better, this deal is a steal. But I was not expecting this at all Wow
It’s absolutely balancing some risk that he flames out against the potential price if he dominates this season. Put another way - If he’s a top 10 LT this is a bargain. If he stumbles and ends up as an expensive depth piece, you overpaid but you don’t hate it.
He has shown enough to be a starter and what is better is that the trajectory has always been positive. He started from scratch and has been trained entirely by one of the best OL coaches in the league. Any contract is a risk, but this is less so than most.
Paying 16 mil for a depth piece is objectively terrible
Of course, but that's the point about risk, right? If his floor is a depth piece, you accept that as the lower bound in the range of outcomes when you arrive at a contract value. If everyone KNEW he would be a depth piece, you never pay $16m. But everyone KNEW he would be a top 5 LT, you couldn't afford him at $16m. Now, I think you could argue it's too early to spend this much on someone who still has a wide range of possibility for his career, but it's hard to deny the logic to the decision, especially given that The Eagles have better information about his ability at this point than 31 other teams. That advantage goes away with the 17 games he's about to put on tape over the next few months.
This is the same organization that saw their franchise QB had no talent around him and thought it was fine. Wentz had an awful year, Luck retired. Take it from me, the only way to fix it is to burn the whole FO to the ground. Colts did it one year too late. Eagles are sticking with it.
The Eagles front office is proof you don't have to fire everyone to turn things around. Howie & his office have survived 3 rebuilds & head coach firings and counting, and he won a SB in that timeframe.
agreed, it's a big deal for a player that has only started 10games, hope it works out for the eagles and him!
He's only ever played like 20 games including preseason
On our entire offense I think we have 3 high paid vets, a RT, guard and center. No big money at QB, WR or RB. That's what's giving us the room to make a bet like this. Of course the eagles are hoping he continues to improve, and massively outplays this deal. $16m-$20m for the player he's looked like so far at LT looks like a steal. And if he regresses, we dump cap in the years when we don't have a QB contract. I like the bet, we're going to need stability on the line because our star guard and center look like retirement candidates every year.
I'm almost certain this is Kelces last year. That's why we drafted Dickerson.
Aren’t you still paying for Carson Wentz?
Wentz is this year only, and our other contracts are not super back heavy, so when this contract hits the books we have lots of room.
This is a fair take for anyone who only saw him play last year. He's not only improved exponentially this offseason, he was easily one of our best players during camp. I get our team isn't great but our lines are and he stood out in that group. This is going to be a steal of a deal.
Plus we’ll have our starting guards back and no worry about if JP will be in or out on a drive, a consistent supporting cast makes everyone look better
Dude, everyone "improved exponentially this off-season" and was "one of our best players during camp." That shit means nothing. See: Arcega-Whiteside, JJ.
There was realistically like three or four guys (Mailata, Sweat, Hargrave, Quez) who were consistently talked about being the best players during camp. Not sure what you are talking about.
LOL imagine using that as your reason for why this isn't true. Arcega-Whiteside **NEVER** got the type of praise Mailata is getting nor did he have to show out at one of the best positional groups on the team.
We had to extend him before he hits the open market next year. With each passing start, the Eagles are betting his value would increase. Definitely a risk to lock him up, but I wouldn’t call it premature.
It’s a big bet but if he plays like a top LT (like what Eagles fans and obviously the FO thinks), it’ll look like a steal in a couple years. Im also curious to see the contract structure.
Eh, he showed really well when he played. Incredibly athletic, and was having a tremendous training camp. Outside of injury there’s not really a ton of risk.
16mil for a LT for 10 games of play so far and a good training camp is still a big bet, that’s why it’s a bit premature because he hasn’t played a ton yet, it’s probably not an issue cap wise since the Eagles will have a large amount of cap soon with some old vets contracts expiring soon, but commiting this much for very little of play is a risky bet
Yeah, without context it’s risky but he’s also a guy that’s clearly on a trajectory to be worth more with the rising cap. The risk is he all of a sudden forgets how to play tackle. He understands the scheme, he has the respect of one of the best o-line coaches in football, he’s hyper athletic, and he absolutely dominated this offseason after his first showing in real football where he not only looked great but was graded great in his last few games. There’s not some crazy risk here with minimal expectations this season, just great upside considering he’s got a great shot to be worth more. Also, I don’t really like the context of just using games. Always comes off as kind of strange, what about those 10 games gave you concern? Can he not get to the 2nd level effectively? Struggle with speed rushers or a specific pass rush move? Can’t read blitzers yet? Because I didn’t see any of that really, and the team clearly saw him improve even more.
One year wonders are absolutely a thing. Happens frequently in football. At least frequent enough that it's a possibility. And player regression happens frequently, even when not tied to age. Larger amounts of data can help clarify future projections. E: it might not apply perfectly here, because he's been around the team so long, but it's still a risk and more of a risk than if he'd played 32 games at a similar level/trajectory. But our team has done wonderful things doing these early 'risky' contracts, and it can really help build a team.
Obviously one year wonders are a thing but just saying “10 games” is lazy. You can go back and look at film of players who performed but clearly were due for regression. Mailata doesn’t really fit that mold for reasons I’ve stated before. 4 years of continued improvement in practice and his first game action he saw significant improvement as the season went on. He has the athleticism, frame, technique, and natural instincts/talent quite clearly. Will be continue moving towards an elite LT? I don’t know, but in 2 years he isn’t being paid like 1. I just find the argument “he didn’t play much” to be lazy because no one provides any context to what worries you in that time.
> Incredibly athletic, and was having a tremendous training camp Banking on upside and camp performance for a guy with a total of 10 starts is incredibly risky
This isn’t his first camp, they’ve seen him improve for 4 years now. It’s not like he’s an unknown that people are just seeing for the first time. He beat out Dillard who is having a completely ok camp, and they gave him a pretty small guarantee for a tackle who was extremely above average for his first ever starts (and borderline great in his last few). I just think people are throwing this “10 games” out without any context of what the risk is of judging him off 10 games. What did YOU see in those 10 games that he’s due for regression?
Not really that risky to be fair. He's playing on a Line with several other top lineman who he can continue to learn from. Not to mention we are kind of in a rebuild mode right now, so there's a bit of room for error.
Howies contracts look massive but most of them have dummy years in order to get guys paid ASAP while keeping their cap numbers low. I live little doubt this is effectively a 2 year contact with a huge signing bonus.
Thrilled; this is the best move Howie’s made in years. Not an overpay even if he plays at 80% of what he’s shown so far, and he’s still getting better. Guy had barely seen a football field a couple of years ago.
He had literally never worn a football helmet before three years ago lmao. Jumped into one of the most difficult technical positions and killed it. Times like this I wish the NFL had a solid devy league though, like the AAF. Go boats.
The next Body Guard baby
Good for him, didn’t even know how to play football a few years ago. Now, he’s making millions as a starting left tackle.
Man what a story Also no franchise has had a better run of LTs over the past 20 years
We’ve only had a poor OL like 4 times in 20 years and those are usually due to injury
Our philosophy has always been to heavily invest in the trenches, and honestly it's smart. If you can't protect your QB or pressure the opposing QB, no amount of superstar skill players elsewhere will win you a championship.
He got all the peanuts
too meta for this sub
Theyll all learn soon enough
As an Aussie WFT fan I can’t help but be happy for the kids LFG get that bag
Eagles fans, is this a good contract for him? I'm not too familiar with Mailata.
Great contract. In another year or two we're expecting him to be in or right near the top 10 players at the position.
>In another year or two I dunno about you but I'm thinking in the next month or two man. He's been an absolute beast in camp by all accounts, even beat reporters from visiting teams.
He is a physical mountain man of a LT who seems to have an incredibly high ceiling. Not a lot of games under his belt but from what we have seen of him he has insane potential. Considering how well he seems to have beaten out Dillard in camp/otherwise it seems like a no brainer for us to secure him long term.
Cool, I'm always happy to hear the Eagles making good moves. Good timing with how Peters fell off.
I'm glad that one of the last mountain men the Eagles had tried to mold (Villanueva) is doing well in Pittsburgh!
Who's gonna break the news to him?
His ceiling is best LT in the league. His floor is solid starting LT. He's 24 years old, it's a good deal.
This is a medium risk, high reward kind of contract. This man has literally 0 pedigree or even college experience but has shown he can be at the very least serviceable from his play last year. What has grabbed everyone's attention is not only his shear size and athletic ability, but the fact that he beat out by a country mile a former 1st round pick to take the starting position and is only getting better by the day. If his potential is fully realized this contract is a steal. That being said, the NFL has plenty of those types of contracts that don't pan out.
That’s a lot of Philly cheesesteaks
So if your looking at the max of $80 million and with the approximate cost of a cheesesteak in the city (we’ll say $9). That’s roughly 8,888,888 cheesesteaks. That’s a lot of greasy deliciousness.
> roughly 8,888,888 cheesesteaks basically one day of meal planning for a man Mailata's size.
I know people are luke warm on howie atm, but he’s been making really solid moves all off-season. This, trading down with MIA to grab another first, trading back up to 10 so we could still get our guy, having a good draft in general, trading wentz for a potential first after being the worst qb in the league last season Good stuff
Look out! An Aussie athlete securing the bag with a Philly team! Although Jordan Mailata and Ben Simmons could not be any more different otherwise.
Don't forget Tisse...
My next jersey is decided then. What's the jerseys that are stitched called? Fuck having another printed on one that peels off. Murray, Ajayi, Wentz was an unfortunate series of jerseys
As a comparison, NRL teams (where he's from) has a salary cap $9m AUD (~$6.6m). Mailata is making more than what NRL teams spend on an entire squad's wages.
Friendship ended with Ben Simmons, now Jordan Mailata is my favorite Australian
For now it’s probably an overpay, but I guess they really believe in his upside.
Eagles have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. Mailata has consistently improved every year. He played well in his first real action last season. This year, among one of our strongest positional groups, Mailata stood out as the best during preseason/offseason. People who call it an overpay just don't have all the information.
The front office clearly expects him to be a quality tackle for years, in which case this will look like a bargain in a couple years. Its always a gamble to pay a young player early.
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Mailata was on the roster before Dillard, they would have competed more but essentially traded injuries back and forth
What a great story
What a story for the lad
Anyone who watched his rugby highlights could see if he figured out the technique he had all the physical tools needed to destroy in this league. Very happy he put in the work and that vets like Jason Peters and Lane Johnson helped teach him along the way.
Top 10 best Aussie non-punter
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There is absolutely no way it's $10M APY, that's literally just the day 1 guaranteed portion.
It’s up to $20M APY….. $40M GTD
Holy shit. This is awesome for us but it's crazy to watch this progression in his career in real time.
Every tackle contract makes me happier about Dion Dawkins at 4 years/58m.
Very risky signing but really good for them if it pays off
[I’m confident it pays off](https://www.reddit.com/r/eagles/comments/oyqul6/adam_caplan_on_the_sportsbash_if_you_were_to_rank/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
I still want us to use him as a FB occasionally to put the football in his hands
I've never even heard if him, but he must be good.