The story of Jordan Mailata’s rise from not knowing a thing about the NFL — let alone the game of football — to Pro Football Focus’ (PFF) highest-graded left tackle this season is nothing short of remarkable.
Although ask this former rugby league front rower where he was expecting to be playing if he did make the leap to the NFL and it certainly was not on the offensive line.
Instead, as Mailata revealed on ‘New Heights’ — the podcast hosted by teammate Jason Kelce and superstar Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — he wasn’t even familiar with the left tackle position when he was first told that was where he would be playing.
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“We did a normal combine workout,” Mailata said on the podcast, recalling the early stages of his time at the IMG Academy, where he trained through the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program.
“I think for bench press I had 20 and I was like, ‘That’s pretty good’ and they were like, ‘Not for your position’.
“I was like, ‘What position?’ [and they said], ‘We’re thinking of letting you play left tackle’ and I said, ‘What’s that?’.”
That is when Mailata revealed he thought he was going to be playing running back up until that point, to the surprise and amusement of both Kelce brothers.
“They were like, ‘Have you seen the movie, The Blind Side?’ I said, ‘F*** off’ because they called me Big Mike in high school and I knew straight away [what left tackle is],” Mailata added, laughing.
Mailata’s improbable rise has already largely been told to this point, with NBC Philadelphia’s Rob Kuestner described it as “the best story in the NFL” in the lead-up to last season’s Super Bowl.
On the ‘New Heights’ podcast though, Mailata had a few more hilarious and eye-opening anecdotes to share which spoke volumes to just how far he has come since being drafted by the Eagles back in 2018.
Then there was Mailata revealing he dumbbell bench presses 200 pounds (90kg) on EACH arm.
“I swear… for reps, this isn’t even a one-rep max,” Jason said, backing his teammate up.
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‘IT F***ING WORKED’: SOME BRUTAL LESSONS ALONG THE WAY
While Mailata is now widely considered one of the best left tackles in the league, he was far from the finished product when he first arrived in Philadelphia.
In fact, it didn’t take long — training camp of his rookie year, to be exact — for Mailata to have his ‘Welcome to the NFL’ moment. He went one-on-one with Steven Means.
“That man sat me down… I got bullrushed,” Mailata said.
“I got out of my stance, I don’t know how I got there, I got to my spot, I’m about to throw my hands and then I’m looking up at the sky. That was my welcome to the NFL moment.”
Although given there was also a stage where Mailata didn’t even know how to put on a helmet when he arrived in the States, there were bound to be plenty more moments like that one with Means.
One of them, which also happened in his rookie year, actually came with Jason.
“I didn’t know how to get into a double team,” Mailata said.
“He [Jason] goes, ‘You’ve got to use your helmet’… so when I go in for a double team naturally I just go like that [motioning head to the side] because I’m used to doing that [playing rugby league].
“He made me hold the bag and had Stefen Wisniewski hit a double team on me and he just headbutted the f*** out of me and he said, ‘That’s how you hit a double team’.
“It rung me a little bit but it f***ing worked. After that day that was all I thought about, was get my head in there and I just naturally fit behind the block easily.”
‘PADS DON’T DO S***’: THE ‘TERRIBLE’ REALITY OF PLAYING IN THE NFL
Speaking of Mailata’s rugby league background, the common reaction from American athletes when first watching the sport is that it is particularly tough given players don’t have pads.
Although ask Mailata and that protective equipment doesn’t necessarily do much anyway.
“I always tell people [if] you play O-line or D-line it’s tougher than rugby because one, the pads don’t do s***,” he laughed.
“Bro, first off when people are like, ‘You guys wear pads you’re a bunch of pussies’. What? The pads don’t do anything. They don’t protect s***.
“The pad that goes on your chest is this thin and you’re copping a f***ing helmet to the sternum. That s*** hurts. Yeah, it’s three seconds but then you’ve got to do it again.
“It’s real hard, you’ve got to move a 300-pound man from Point A to Point B… the protection, the helmets, the pads — they don’t help anything.
“You [speaking to Jason] said last week that it’s like being hit by a car, that’s definitely what it is. It’s like a mini car crash every three seconds, every 40 seconds. It’s terrible.”
‘IT WAS GAME ON’: MAILATA’S BIG TEST… AND THE CHEEKY WAY HE PASSED IT
It isn’t just the physical toll the game takes though. Then there is also the mental challenge of learning an NFL playbook, which Mailata previously likened to reading a “different language”.
So, Mailata had to study up and now he is a graduate of Jeff Stoutland University, as he proudly announces on the team line-up graphics that pop up on prime time games.
Mailata still remembers the first phone call he got from Stoutland, Philadelphia’s offensive line coach who the Australian credits for a lot of his success in the NFL.
Although Mailata wasn’t around to answer the call, so all he got was a voicemail — one that has stayed with him to this day. He just wishes he had saved it to have the proof.
“I missed his call and you guys had just won the Super Bowl and he left me a voicemail,” Mailata said.
“I wish I f***ing saved the voicemail. I s*** you not, he ended it with, ‘Just give me a ring. It’s coach Stoutland…. that’s coach Stoutland, Super Bowl LII champion’. I swear to God.”
So, Mailata called back the Super Bowl LII champion pretty quickly and organised to meet at a classroom. What transpired was one of Mailata’s first big tests at the Eagles.
“When I met him at the car I was like, ‘This guy is such a sweet, lovely old man’. Went to the classroom, flipped the switch and it was game on,” Mailata said.
“He was quizzing me and I was like, ‘I have no idea what the hell you are talking about. Brother I don’t even know what you mean by the safety rotating and all that. What the hell?’. “So he’s teaching me the progressions of 2 Jet protection on the greaseboard and after it he goes, ‘Take a photo with your mind’ and then he rubbed out the board and then that was the end of the meeting.”
However, just like Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes — who revealed on the ‘New Heights’ podcast how he cheated Kansas City’s pre-draft test — Mailata also found a way to get a leg-up.
“I ran back up into that classroom, thank God the grease marks were still there because I just traced out everything, took a picture, wrote that s*** down, went home and studied it,” he said, laughing.
“The next day, before my Pro Day, [I] met up with three coaches and he told me, ‘Teach me 2 Jet protection’. I said, ‘Easy’.”
The rest is history and Mailata’s relationship with Stoutland has only grown stronger, with the Australian telling media back in 2021 that the Eagles’ offensive line coach was like his “dad”.
“I didn’t really understand what I was really walking into when I got drafted and when I came to Philly,” added Mailata, now speaking on the ‘New Heights’ podcast.
“Just that little snippet of Stout and just how passionate he is when he conducted the interview with me wasn’t enough for me to really understand the kind of person he was. Really hard coach, a really passionate coach, a really detailed coach.
“But at the end of the day, the man just gives a f*** about the player and sport and man, it was crazy.
“It was crazy walking into that locker room… I was very privileged to walk into a room with very experienced guys and to have a coach like Stout who brought me along the way.”
Things could have been very different though.
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ON HOW HE COULD HAVE ENDED UP AT PITTSBURGH…AND THE DRAFT DREAM
Mailata revealed he could have actually ended up at the Pittsburgh Steelers if he wasn’t drafted as part of the NFL’s International Pathway Program.
But instead the Eagles took Mailata in the seventh round of the 2018 draft, not that the Australian was expecting it — or even was going to be too upset if his name wasn’t called.
“For real I got invited to go to Dallas for the draft… NFL Films just wanted to capture the whole thing on the potential of me being drafted,” Mailata said.
“At the end of day two they told me, ‘If you’re going to get drafted, you’re probably go to be day three’ and I was like, ‘Listen, I’m just living it up right now. You guys are paying for all my meals, my room, my travel… this is cool. You’re just telling me I have to talk into a camera. I’m cool with that’.
“Then day three happened. Waiting around all day was crazy. I really didn’t think I was going to get drafted. I was just there for the ride.”
ON GOING TO A SUPER BOWL
Fast-forward to 2023 and Mailata was now playing at left tackle in a Super Bowl.
For the Australian, it was an opportunity to reflect on all he had given up and the people he had left behind to chase a dream.
“I couldn’t believe we were going to a Super Bowl,” Mailata said.
“You know when people ask what are your long-term and short-term goals… I didn’t have any of that on my list. When you find it, it really just hits you. Again, you just understand the position you are in and the opportunity you have.
“The whole time I was just thinking [of] everything we’ve sacrificed because the NFL is a hard lifestyle. You get rewarded pretty well. The pay and all the other stuff you get with it, the perks — definitely a lot of upside.
“But the downside is there’s a lot too and you make it all the way. You’re very appreciative and especially in my case I just reflected on everything it took to get there.”
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