The ideal teaching tape is usually hand picked from the best of the best. Want to know how to rush the passer? Go turn on some tape of Von Miller. Want to know how to play QB at the NFL level? Go watch Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. But teaching tape of what not to do is equally as important for the development of young players. In the case of Jordan Mailata, his week 7 tape against the New York Giants is teaching tape for what not to do. Now that might sound kind’ve scary, but in reality all of his problems I am about to show you are easily correctable. He was simply forced outside of his comfort zone and thus he will be forced to continue to evolve his game. Given that the Eagles played on a Thursday night, that would give them 10 days until they play against the Dallas Cowboys. That means 10 days for Jordan to study this tape and fix his mistakes.
The Good
There wasn’t much good from Jordan on Thursday night, however we still saw some incredible examples of his imposing physicality. In this first example we see Jordan creating a monster hole for Boston Scott with his mauling block on Dalvin Tomlinson. Jordan finishes it off by putting Dalvin into the turf.
Once again throwing Dalvin Tomlinson to the ground creating another big running lane for Boston Scott. Dalvin is no push over, he is a 320 pound mammoth of a DT, who has been playing good football for the Giants.
The Bad
There is much more to highlight in this section. Jordan’s passiveness with his hands was taken advantage of all night long. The giants edge rushers had a clear objective of getting straight into Mailata’s chest without giving him the chance to retaliate. In this first example from Mailata his hand placement is way too low and very late. There’s no punch and he’s attempting to catch Kyler Fackrell with his left hand located at Kyler’s waist. But as you can see by leaving his chest exposed it allows Kyler to take advantage knocking Mailata slightly off balance creating some separation. Kyler then follows that up with easily passing that left arm of Mailata. What you’d like to see is Mailata initiate the contact and get his hands high on Frackrell to control his base.
On this running play Mailata shows poor technique. He stops his feet making it easy for the defender to push him off balance and doesn’t even get his left hand on him. We’ve seen Mailata have some very impressive run blocks in the past, but he has to be more consistent in this area. He tends to get disconnected in his blocks quite frequently in the running game.
Again poor footwork and poor hand placement allows BJ Hill to easily toss Mailata out of the way. You would like to see Mailata use more of his power instead of relying on technique since he is a raw player.
BJ Hill gets Mailata with a bull rush here. Mailata saw this a lot this game, as they were clearly taking advantage of Mailata’s passiveness. When a 300+ pound DT is coming full steam you should be expecting a bull rush and be less worried about getting beat around the edge. Initiating the contact with a punch would’ve countered Hill’s bull rush. Instead Hill gets into Mailata’s chest and he is unable to recover resulting in him getting pushed back into Carson Wentz.
Once again Mailata leaving his chest exposed, late with his hands, and #93 takes full advantage of it utilizing a stab straight into Mailata’s right armpit knocking him off balance and leaving him vulnerable to the inside. Fortunately Mailata rebounds and makes a pretty impressive recovery to get re-connected using his freakish length.
Again trying to catch but it doesn’t work. Combination of a good speed to power and quick hands allows Kyler Fackrell to get an easy QB hit.
Overall I think there is a common theme in all of these clips. Passive hands. We all know that Mailata is not a passive individual and he is certainly not weak. Theoretically this. should be a pretty easy fix for Mailata. Be more aggressive with his hands and a lot of these issues become suppressed.
Final Thoughts
In previous weeks versus the 49ers, Steelers, and Ravens, Mailata was able to successfully rely on his sheer size and strength to shut down opposing rushers. This week not so much. He was forced outside of his comfort zone, coming to the realization that size and length doesn’t mean squat if you refuse to use it. But this is where the good news comes in. This is all correctable. Easily correctable in fact, considering we’ve already seen him have success being more aggressive. But the only way to continue evolving your game is to go up against the best. Take your beatings and learn from them. Jordan Mailata is young and hungry. He didn’t come all this way just to give up on himself now. He has all of the physical tools to EASILY fix these mistakes. And with 10 days to prepare for the Cowboys I fully expect Mailata to come back with a vengeance.
The Philly Blitz 