Jordan Mailata is already sounding like a player who knows the Eagles are entering something new. On Tuesday, the veteran tackle called Sean Mannion an “evil genius” while the team continued installing a new-look offense during organized team activities.
The timing matters because this is not a finished product, and Philadelphia is still in the middle of teaching it. Mailata, 29, said the Eagles have spent the last two weeks working through the changes under Mannion, the team’s 34-year-old new offensive coordinator, as Nick Sirianni tries to push an offense he said must “evolve” after the wild-card exit.
Mailata did not hide how much respect he has for Mannion. He called him “a wizard” and said if the three smartest people in the building were locked in a room together, Mannion would be one of them — or, in Mailata’s telling, just Mannion by himself. The left tackle added that the team should be able to “display what is in that beautiful mind of his” as the season goes on.
What the Eagles are building is still taking shape. Mailata said the run game is expected to move to a wide-zone blocking scheme, a shift that should let the line “lean on our athleticism a little bit more.” For an offense that has spent two weeks in shorts, without live contact, that is a meaningful change in both design and feel.
The changes are not just coming from the coordinator’s chair. Chris Kuper is the new offensive line coach, and Mailata said this is the first time in his nine-year NFL career that he has had to learn under a new line coach. He called Kuper “awesome” and said the former Minnesota assistant has already been a strong addition because of his familiarity with the scheme and the new techniques he is bringing.
That learning curve has only sharpened with the bigger shake-up around the roster. Four days after the wild-card exit, the Eagles traded away A.J. Brown on Monday, a move that underscored how much the offense is being reworked ahead of training camp. Mailata’s reaction suggested the line and the rest of the unit are still absorbing what this version of the Eagles is supposed to look like.
Mailata said he is embracing feeling like a rookie again at 29, which is not a small thing for a player deep into his career. The next real checkpoint comes in late July at training camp, when the Eagles will have to turn the ideas from OTAs into something that can hold up once the pads come on and the season starts to ask harder questions.
