Eagles OT Jordan Mailata 'Chasing Greatness' Established by Jason Kelce, Others

The left tackle of the Philadelphia Eagles credits Kelce, Lane Johnson, and others for setting the high standard that exsted when he arrived as a flyer draft pick in 2018

PHILADELPHIA - Someday, the way Jordan Mailata sees it, Jason Kelce’s picture will hang in a prominent spot inside the Philadelphia Eagles’ South Philly training facility.

“He’s a legend and the legend of Jason Kelce will forever live in these hallways,” said Mailata on Wednesday. “It’s not even a myth anymore. People talk about myths, but the legend of Jason Kelce will be a real story.

“One day his picture’s going to be up here on the wall. Like me, the young cats walking into this building, aren’t going to know who he is and they’re going to find out who he is later on. He’s just a legend. I have so much respect for Kelce. He’s the epitome of a football player and a true leader and captain.”

For now, it is Kelce and fellow veteran Lane Johnson who set the incredibly high standard, along with line coach Jeff Stoutland, that has made this Eagles offensive line one of the very best in the NFL for the last several years.

It was Kelce and Johnson, along with others such as Jason Peters, Brandon Brooks, Stefen Wisniewski, Chance Warmack, and Halapoulivaati Vaitai who were entrenched in the locker room when Mailata arrived as a seventh-round draft pick in 2018 – a flyer pick, really. 

He barely knew how to put on his shoulder pads after a life playing rugby in Australia.

“The room that I was brought into had a high standard,” he said. “…Those guys set the ceiling. Those guys set the standard and it’s pretty easy when you’re chasing greatness, and that’s kind of the mindset I go in with every day, is just chasing greatness.”

Mailata has become one of the game’s top left tackles in such a short period of time.

He is in a position now where one of the young offensive linemen, players such as Cam Jurgens and Tyler Steen, and others who arrive in the ensuing years, may begin looking up to him.

Mailata was hesitant to look at it in those terms, however. He still deferred to Kelce, the legend.

“The goal for young guys should be trying to achieve that standard and when you get to that standard, keep chasing Kelce,” he said. “I feel like I haven’t got there yet because Kelce is forever pushing the standard boundary.

“Every year he comes back he’s pushing it more and more. He wants us to get more out of drills, he wants us to get better at watching film, and he wants us to be more football and fundamentally sound.”

Kelce will turn 36 in November, during his 13th NFL season. The legend doesn’t figure to be around very much longer, though, with Kelce, one never knows.

When he, and even Johnson, now 33, hang it up, all eyes may turn to the 6-8, 380-pound Mailata and his good friend and left guard Landon Dickerson, who was married during the offseason and had Mailata serve as his best man

“Whatever works for the guys, they have truly come into a great locker room and a great O-line room, where the culture is still intact from the day that I stepped in," Mailata said.

“We have a standard in there that’s very high because of Coach Stout, because of Kelce, because of Lane. Now Landon and I are trying to emulate and reach that status so you young guys can hopefully see us the way I saw the locker room that I came into.”

---

Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Philadelphia Eagles? Click Here.

Want even more Philadelphia Eagles news? Check out the SI.com team page here