Since signing his massive contract extension with the Eagles, Jordan Mailata has experienced some turbulence in recent weeks.
The Philadelphia Eagles are off to their worst start since 1999 at 2-5 and there’s plenty of blame to spread around.
New coach Nick Sirianni has come under fire from fans and local media, with his response to the Eagles struggles going viral this week after an interesting take on the team’s growth during a mid-week press conference.
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The Eagles lost their second straight and for the fifth time in six games when they went down to the Las Vegas Raiders 33-22 on Monday (AEDT), and Mailata had a few struggles against a Raiders team that recorded their second straight win since the removal of coach Jon Gruden.
Mailata, who missed two games because of a knee injury earlier in the season, struggled against defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, who schooled the Australian in a clinical display.
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It was Mailata’s first game back at left tackle after being shifted to the right to cover for injuries to the offensive line. By the end of the first half Ngakoue had two total tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss and two passes defended.
By the end of the match Mailata had allowed seven quarterback pressures with the offensive line allowing a combined 10 pressures in total.
Perhaps, Mailata has been a victim of his team’s injury problems with the constant switching of positions hurting his performance. Although, the Raiders defensive line have been on fire all year.
The Eagles rank 15th out of 32 teams in QB sacked percentage, which sees them in the middle of the pack.
After the first month of the season, Mailata was the second-highest graded player on the Philadelphia Eagles, according to Pro Football Focus.
He was only responsible for one penalty and zero sacks on 188 snaps at left tackle. These marks saw him ranked fourth overall league-wide.
But injury and his switch to the right exposed some vulnerabilities.
While the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive line performed well against the Panthers in week five, allowing only two sacks versus 37 passing attempts, Mailata turned in one of his worst performances at right tackle in his return from injury.
He was beaten off the line by Panthers linebacker Haason Reddick on consecutive plays, with the Panthers defender sacking QB Jalen Hurts both times.
While he’s struggled, the fact the Eagles have enough faith in the former league player to move him around the offensive line rather than bringing a specialist at right tackle, means he clearly has the trust of the organisation.
The Eagles are looking to turn their season around this Monday (AEDT) when the Eagles travel to Detroit to play the winless Lions. Their first-year coach is shooting for a win to potentially start the process of salvaging their season after dropping two straight games.
Speaking ahead of the match, the analogy Sirianni used during the press conference raised eyebrows when he was asked about his team’s development this season
“This is what I said to the team: ‘The results aren’t there right now, but what’s going on here is that there’s growth under the soil’,” the coach said.
“I put a picture of a flower up, and it’s coming through the ground, and the roots are growing out. The roots are continuing to grow out. Everybody wants to see results. Shoot, nobody wants to see results more than us, right?
“The only way the roots grow out every single day, and they grow stronger and they grow better, is if we all water, we all fertilise, we all do our part… each individual coach, each individual player, each everybody in the building that we do our part to water to make sure when it (flower) does pops out it really pops out and it grows,” he continued.
“I’m always thinking of different messages to give to the team that either really fit to the situation, that I’ve gotten before in a situation from another head coach, from my dad or whatever.
“That was my message today because we are going through tough times and everybody wants to see results. But just keep doing what we’re doing, keep watering, and look at yourself first. Are you watering and are you fertilising every day?”
While the media had a field day reporting on Sirianni’s flower analogy, Mailata said the whole team bought into the idea.
“I think coach Nick Sirianni came in very passionate today,” the left tackle said. “I think throughout the whole team they kind of understood his message of just the daily deposits. You could tell we needed that. And he showed it through just his raw emotion when he was telling us about that plan and the flower.
“I think it was well-received between, I guess, every single player on the team sitting there. Daily deposits, the rent is always due, those kinds of things that we say. And I think just focusing on the process, doubling down on what we know, how to practice the fundamentals and just the daily process.”
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