Spotlight shifts to Mailata after Johnson injury
PHILADELPHIA — Any chance quarterback Carson Wentz had of playing anything more than a handful of preseason snaps — or any at all — likely was killed with the Eagles’ announcement on Saturday that their finest offensive lineman, Lane Johnson, and their best blocking tight end, Dallas Goedert, were suddenly week-to-week with knee and calf injuries, respectively.
Although their temporary shutdowns are thought to be precautionary and don’t project as far as the regular season, the
Eagles already have lost backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld (broken wrist) for at least six weeks and may not want to risk playing the injury-prone Wentz in exhibition games behind a line that is compromised in any way.
Meanwhile, the focus now shifts squarely on Jordan Mailata, the second-year former Australian rugby star who had been shifted to backup right tackle after the Eagles drafted Andre Dillard in April. Though massive (6-8, 360), strong and athletic, Mailata is raw, having never played the game until the Eagles drafted him last year.
But he played nearly every snap in Thursday’s preseason opener against Tennessee and figures to do more of the same throughout the rest of the preseason. This represents a change from last year, when both his practice and preseason game repetitions were limited.
The chance to accelerate his growth has Mailata excited, and he spoke about this new opportunity after Saturday’s fully padded practice at training camp, which began around 33 hours after they walked off the field following a loss to the Titans.
“Very lucky, very lucky and fortunate that they have put their trust in me and I have to be accountable,” he said.
Thursday night’s game alone was the most real football Mailata ever played in one day, and now the action will be coming fast and furious for almost a month straight.
“I was sore [after the game],” he said. “I’ll tell you that. I’m still sore after coming in today and having a full padded practice.”
So if there’s a positive aspect to Johnson’s injury, it’s that the Eagles will have a much better read on what Mailata can do.
As of Saturday morning, though, he hadn’t received his customary feedback from offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. That was scheduled for a Saturday evening video session.
Stoutland was encouraged when asked on Friday about Mailata’s performance.
“I was very happy with his set lines and the way he surfaced the blocks,” Stoutland said. “So there’s improvement there. There’s still a ways to go.
“… Last year, we were teaching him from Ground Zero. We were teaching stance, we were teaching hand placement, we were teaching relocating your feet. And all the little things that maybe players would have learned in Pop Warner or high school, he didn’t know any of those things. So there’s still, like I said, a ways to go. But he’s much more advanced in that category than he was last year, obviously.”
Added coach Doug Pederson: “He did some good things. We were pleased with his performance. It wasn’t perfect. There were one or two there, just little mental errors. Overall, I felt like he came out with an eagerness, with an aggressiveness and really showed the type of player that I think he’s capable of being and what we’ve seen in him, and it came out in the game.”
OK, now on to practice observations: ■ Linebacker Nate Gerry made a nifty play early with a blitzing interception of a Carson Wentz pass and an easy touchdown.
■ Wentz didn’t have a great day in terms of timing. In the first 7-on-7 session, he held the ball so long on one play that Pederson blew it dead. And there were probably a half-dozen other instances when the whistle didn’t blow but should have.
Defensive end Derek Barnett was in team drills for the first time, and cornerback Ronald Darby was inserted for 7-on-7 sessions.
Cody Kessler, the backup quarterback until Sudfeld returns, doesn’t have the kind of big arm fans have grown accustomed to seeing from Wentz and Sudfeld, but he plays within himself and has a good chance of catching on here as the third quarterback, if the team decides to keep one on the active roster for the long term.
When Sudfeld is ready to return, he’ll become the backup, though, because Pederson said they’ve seen enough from him before his injury to make that determination.
“I think so. I mean, obviously we can go back and kind of look at what he did last year a little bit in some of the games, obviously the preseason game [on Thursday],” Pederson said. “Would you like more time? Yeah, you’d like to get another game or two to see him in a little more action. But what he’s proven to us in practice the last couple of years, what he’s done out here, what he did in the game the other night, again, he was smart with the football, made great decisions, threw the ball with accuracy. Those are all things you look for in the backup.
“He did a nice job in kind of solidifying that spot.”
Morning Call reporter Nick Fierro can be reached at 610-778-2243 or nfierro@mcall.com.