Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata didn’t go to college before entering the NFL and his introduction on Sunday Night Football is a nod to the unusual route he’s taken to a starting job in Philadelphia.
Mailata introduces himself as being from “Jeff Stoutland University” in reference to the Eagles offensive line coach who has helped him develop since Philly made Mailata a seventh-round pick in 2018. Mailata played rugby in Australia and was invited to train as a football player in Florida, which is where Stoutland saw him working out.
During Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday, Stoutland said that he saw “critical factors” that he looks for in players when he first saw Mailata in action and recalled that the Steelers were the only other team scouting the tackle.
“I was so happy that there was no one else there. I knew right then and there that this guy had all the things we were looking for,” Stoutland said.
The Eagles weren’t so blown away that they were willing to take Mailata before the seventh round, but General Manager Howie Roseman made sure that he wouldn’t go to Pittsburgh by sending a future seventh-rounder to the Eagles in order to move up 17 spots at the end of the draft. That secured Mailata and started the process of developing him into an NFL player.
Mailata did not make his regular season debut until 2020, but has started 43 regular season and playoff games over the last three seasons after putting in the time to prepare himself for the professional ranks.
“This was something that we just worked really hard at and grinded away at,” Stoutland said. “It’s a credit to him because it wasn’t easy for him, believe me. This was learning something completely new, foreign to him and just a tremendous story really.”
A Super Bowl ring would make the story of Mailata’s journey from rugby player to NFL starter an even more tremendous one.