PHILADELPHIA – Jordan Mailata has dominated much of the conversations with offensive linemen and coaches interviewed this week as the Eagles prepare to head south to Atlanta to meet the Falcons at the season opener.
When asked if the 6-8, 380-pound Mailata reminded him of anyone, offensive coordinator Shane Steichen was blunt, “No, he’s the tallest person I’ve ever seen. He’s a great man. “
Right Tackle Lane Johnson called Mailata “a nature freak”.
“There’s no one in the NFL who’s been that big and can move like that,” added Johnson. “(Jonathan) Ogden was there, trying not to compare it to the 6-9.345-pound Ogden, but Ogden was never that big. I’ve never seen a guy this tall before. It’s massive. “
Mailata, whose rookie contract expires at the end of the season, will start the season as a start linker and can turn this into a massive contract with reliable play. He will currently play the season on a base salary of $ 850,000.
Jordan Mailata
Philadelphia Eagles
Three other aspects of the Eagles’ offensive line shouldn’t be overlooked by the Malata excitement: Jason Kelce’s consecutive starting streak and Johnson’s ankle and Brandon Brook’s health.
Kelce will begin his 106th straight game in Atlanta on Sunday. Since 2014, in front of two head coaches, he has not missed a start.
“I’ve been really fortunate to have had a healthy, relatively good career so far,” said Kelce. “We hope that we can continue like this this year. I would like to add at least 17 more to them. Just one at a time.
“I feel good. I think we had a really good training camp. The coaches, players, strength and stamina and sports science really put together a plan to keep us healthy and to do some things that we have over the past few years We are going pretty healthy in this first week. We feel really good there. “
The streak is the longest in the history of the Eagles for a center since the 1970 merger. It is also the longest for an NFL center since Chris Myers started 123 games from 2007-2014.
Brooks was constrained with a knee injury all week, but head coach Nick Sirianni said he would play on Sunday. It will be the right guard’s first game since the 2019 season finale.
Johnson is also feeling good about the start of the season.
How important is that
The Eagles are 58-40-1 with him in the line-up and only 11-18 without him.
Johnson couldn’t finish last season after a second ankle surgery in just a few months. He tried to play through the pain and swelling before turning it off, but often failed to make it through an entire game.
“This year is very different,” he says. “Ankles that are fixed as opposed to one that is hanging by a thread. This year it will be a lot easier for me to play.
“(That’s huge. Something you don’t have to think about anymore. Going through this has made me mentally stronger in my opinion in the last few years. When they play this position, there are a lot of guys who are in the O-line position Guys play through broken fingers, hands, cracked ACLs, so it is what it is. But I’m glad to be out there. “
So the Eagles’ offensive line now has an identity.
What about the other parts?
The players themselves are curious about it, too, and it starts on Sunday.
“I feel like our talent level is up there,” said Johnson. “I feel like we’ve done some good things on the practice field, but you don’t really know what you have in the first couple of games. Even during the Super Bowl year, we didn’t really know what kind of team we would be until the Chargers game was real (in week 4 of 2017).
“Well, it’ll take a few games to find out what your identity is and how you can shape it. It won’t be a one-game deal. It’ll be a multi-game thing. “
NOTE: Rodney McLeod and OL Landon Dickerson were excluded from Sunday’s game.
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Ed Kracz is editor of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
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