Philadelphia Eagles: Evan Neal is getting comped to Jordan Mailata

There was a time when Jordan Mailata making the Philadelphia Eagles‘ roster was far from a guarantee.

There was a time when Mailata’s progression felt glacial, and some questioned whether he’d ever be able to play tackle at the game’s highest level.

Heck, there was even a time when some openly questioned whether or not the Eagles should give up on Mailata at offensive tackle entirely and try him at a different position, like defensive tackle, or even just forgo positions altogether and use him exclusively as a special teamer to take advantage of his rugby background.

And yet, against all of the odds, Jordan Mailata made it work. He played in place of Jason Peters in 2020, beat out Andre Dillard in the summer of 2021 to secure the starting spot, and was awarded a massive contract extension to remain the Eagles’ left tackle for a very, very long time. With a fantastic 2021 season under his belt, it looks like Howie Roseman‘s decision to trade away two seventh-round picks for the rights to sign a giant from Sydney who had never played football before was borderline prophetic, especially now that Evan Neal, the player expected to go first overall in the 2022 NFL Draft, is being compared to the former South Sydney Rabbitoh.

The Philadelphia Eagles have a prototypical modern-day left tackle.

If you’re a fan of reading mock drafts – and by reading mock drafts, I don’t just mean skimming until the mid-teens to see what the Philadelphia Eagles do – you’ve surely seen one player and one player alone consistently shipped down to Jacksonville to play under everyone’s favorite former Philadelphia Eagles head coach, Doug Pederson: Evan Neal.

On paper, it makes perfect sense; Neal is a big, fast, strong athletic left tackle out of Alabama who is plug-and-play at the NFL level. With a soon-to-be second-year quarterback looking to light up the league after an odd season under Urban Meyer, securing protection for Trevor Lawrence has to be a priority for Trent Baalke, who doesn’t exactly hold the most secure job in the NFL based on how fans in JAX treated him back in January.

Over the past three seasons in Tuscaloosa, Neal has played left guard, right tackle, and finally left tackle for four different quarterbacks with very different offensive skill sets – including our own Jalen Hurts – and yet, through it all, the former five-star recruit only allowed five sacks in 40 games. Despite measuring in at an astounding 6-foot-7, 350 pounds, Neal moved around like a left tackle Lane Johnson and was able to produce some of the more dominant performances you’ll see from a college player barely of drinking age, especially in the Crimson Tide’s non-SEC contests.

Hmm… a big, tall, athletic mound of clay who excelled at left tackle despite a lack of experience at the position? Whoever does that sound like? According to Lance Zierlein, the answer is none other than Jordan Mailata.

If Jordan Mailata didn’t work out, no one would have faulted Howie Roseman. He traded up to draft Andre Dillard 22nd overall in the 2019 NFL Draft one year before Jason Peters was allowed to test free agency, and had Mailata failed to catch on, the Philadelphia Eagles likely would have been just fine with the former Washington State Cougar manning the blindside. But fortunately, that isn’t how things went down. No, after a thorough trouncing in a left tackle competition last summer, Dillard is now on the trade block, and as for Mailata? Well, he looks to be the Eagles’ left tackle for a very, very, very long time. Evan Neal would be so lucky, even if it has to come into the home of AEW with an ice cream-loving head coach.