It wasn’t the brand of football Jordan Mailata wanted to play.
The shoulder injury he suffered early last season wasn’t healing and without a healthy shoulder Mailata just wasn’t the same player.
In his fifth NFL season and his third as a starter, Mailata was at a crossroads in his career. He was a really good left tackle and a remarkable story, considering he had never played a day of organized football before arriving at Eagles OTAs in the spring of 2018.
But just being a good story and a decent player wasn’t what Mailata had in mind.
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He wanted more. He’s always wanted more. And five years in, he still wasn’t seeing it.
“It was hard, man,” Mailata said of his 2022 season. “I felt a little bit lost with how I was playing because of my injury. I was playing a little reserved because it wasn't 100 percent. And I was just trying to get through every game.”
Mailata didn’t miss any games after getting hurt Week 4 vs. the Jaguars. And while you admire his toughness, he never gave that shoulder a chance to heal until the Eagles had a 1st-round bye before the playoffs began.
“That’s when I was finally able to get the rehab in, build the strength back up, with just that one week off,” he said. “And it gave me confidence and I felt like when I had that confidence, I found my identity again of how I wanted to play football.
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“And I thought it showed in the next three games – the Giants game, the San Francisco game and the Super Bowl.
“The way I played in the postseason, that just further emphasized to me that when I'm healthy, I know I can be the most dominant person out on the field. That's my mentality that I’ve imparted from last year, and the way I’ve tried to play all year this year.”
And he has.
“He’s in the prime of his career right now,” Kelce said. “Physically, he’s only getting better, and his technique is continuing to get better. I mean, he only started playing football six years ago. It’s remarkable, really, the career arc that he’s had, and I think he’s playing the best right now that he’s ever played in his career. The things he’s doing physically are just beyond impressive at this point.
“He’s hard on himself, but there have been more ‘Oh my gosh’ moments from him the first half of this year than I’ve seen since he’s been here.”
Mailata has been better than ever the first half of the 2023 season, and although you always take Pro Football Focus grades with a little bit of a grain of salt, there aren’t a ton of good ways to compare offensive linemen, but going into Week 11 PFF listed Mailata as the 3rd-highest rated offensive tackle in the league and the 2nd-highest left tackle, behind only the Vikings’ Christian Darrisaw.
He’s the left tackle on the No. 3 offense in the NFL and the team with the best record in football and the offensive line generally considered the best in the game.
“I feel like I am playing better (than he ever has), but at the same time I'm not really happy because it's the bleep that I’m still missing,” he said. “Everyone else might think, ‘Oh, Jordan had a great game,’ but then you watch the film and it’s like, ‘Oh, bleep.’” … Just like technique-wise, I could have been more sound.
“So I would say I am happy with the way I’m playing, but I'm not satisfied. There's a bigger picture here, and I'm still just trying to achieve that picture. I'm not worried about any outside factors, man, like Pro Bowl and PFF. That's cool and all, but I'm not satisfied, I'm not done yet because there are still things that I'm missing.”
When talking about what went into his breakthrough season, Mailata mentions guys you’d expect - Jeff Stoutland, Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Landon Dickerson – but also two you wouldn’t expect - practice squad linemen LeRaven Clark and Brett Toth.
He said Clark pushes him in walkthroughs and works with him on his hands, his timing and his spatial awareness: “LeRaven’s been getting me right, man,” Mailata said. “He’s my secret weapon.”
And he said Toth has helped with the mental side of football: “He always tells me, before every game, ‘I want you to go to the Pro Bowl, so you’re going to give me a Pro Bowl effort.’ He talks about being the best tackle out there.
“I’m telling you, nobody ever talks about those guys, but they’re all part of the process with me. They’re all part of why I’ve become the player I am today.”
Mailata is still only 26 but already has a pretty good body of work. He’s continuing a legacy that has seen three players – Tra Thomas, Jason Peters and himself – start 388 of the Eagles’ last 441 games at left tackle going back 26 years.
Is this the year Mailata finally joins Johnson, Dickerson and Kelce as a Pro Bowler?
Is this the year he's finally recognized as one of the NFL's best?
“In a sense it would, I'd be pretty good, but I'll be honest, the big goal is the Super Bowl, man,” he said. “Kelce said, ‘When you lose one, you want to win the next one like a little bit more.’ I want that. I want to get back. I can't look too far down the road but I want the Super Bowl more than I do the all-pro or the Pro Bowl.”
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have individual goals.
There’s one very simple one.
To be the best offensive tackle in football. And the guy he’s chasing plays a few feet over to his right.
“That's my mentality,” he said. “I know that I have a hell of a mentor and a right tackle in Lane, but my mentality is to go out there and try and be the best tackle in the league. Period. Left tackle, right tackle, all the types.
“Lane is the best tackle. And my mentality every week is to be better than Lane. And that's a high bleeping standard to reach for. I feel like I fall short every week. I swear to God, even now, I'm like, ‘Lane, how the hell how do you do that?
“I still don't feel like I’ve played a better game than him all year. He's the best. I'm telling you, Lane is the best tackle in the league. That’s what I’m chasing.”