Australian giant Jordan Mailata named starting LT for Philadelphia Eagles

Australia’s Jordan Mailata completed a meteoric rise in the NFL when he was named starting left tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles this week ahead of the Eagles opening game against the Atlanta Falcons.

The 24-year-old behemoth (6’8″, 348 pounds) only starting playing American football four years ago so “meteoric rise” would not be an exaggeration in describing his development. Add to this the fact that he sat out all of the 2018 and 2019 NFL seasons, and it becomes even more impressive.

Mailata, a former Australia rugby league player, beat out former first-round pick Andre Dillard for the job of protecting the blindside of quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni explained his choice for the key spot on the offensive line:

“Jordan will be our starter. He had a great camp, Andre had a great camp. Andre missed some time and during that time, the chemistry with the offensive line was able to build.

Mailata only tried on football pads for the first time in 2017 but by August of 2018, he was on the field with the Eagles’ third-stringers in NFL preseason showdowns against the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, Cleveland Browns, and New York Jets.

The young Samoan-Australian was a seventh-round pick back in 2018 and viewed as a long-term project. He played minutes off the bench in his debut last year as the Eagles offensive line was decimated by injury, yet his place in the team became uncertain when the 2017 Super Bowl winners changed coaches at the end of the 2020 season.