Jordan Mailata has high praise for new Eagles offensive coordinator and ‘evil genius’ Sean Mannion: ‘You’re in for a show’

The last two weeks of organized team activities have offered a glimpse into the new-look Eagles offense — and the man pulling its strings.

Sean Mannion is never far from the action on the field. In individual drills, he’s mirroring receivers in coverage and offering feedback immediately after reps. In team drills, he’s standing 20 yards behind the offense and calling plays into a walkie-talkie.

His players are in shorts. The league prohibits live contact in OTAs. The offense is still being installed, and it’s far from a finished product. But after spending nearly a month and a half with Mannion in practices and in meetings, left tackle Jordan Mailata has already formed his opinion on his new offensive coordinator.

“Sean is [an] evil genius,” Mailata said Tuesday.

For the Eagles, though, Mannion will attempt to use his acumen for good. Four days after their wild-card exit, which featured many of the issues that plagued the offense all season, head coach Nick Sirianni emphasized that the group must “evolve.”

Enter Mannion. The Eagles offense is set to take a new direction under the 34-year-old first-time offensive play-caller, whose coaching and playing backgrounds are in the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay scheme. That new direction, ideally, will bring the Eagles back to Super Bowl contention, despite trading away their former top receiver in A.J. Brown on Monday.

At the very least, Mannion has already won over Mailata.

“The guy knows ball, and if I were to lock the three smartest people in the facility in one room, Sean would be there, and I think Sean would just be by himself,” Mailata said. “It would just be Sean. He’s a wizard, and, man, I’m super excited. As the year goes on, we get to display what is in that beautiful mind of his.”

Roughly two months before the start of training camp, Mailata declined to share the ideas percolating in that “beautiful mind,” especially regarding the technical changes for the offensive line. Still, the run game is expected to adopt the wide-zone blocking scheme at the heart of similar systems.

Mailata seemed to confirm as much, conceding that the offensive line will be able to “lean on our athleticism a little bit more” in the new scheme. That limited preview will have to suffice until late July.

“[I] just think that you’re in for a show, and I think you’ll be able to see what Sean’s bringing in camp,” Mailata said.

Mannion is in charge of the offense, but he isn’t the only one installing it. For the first time in his nine-year NFL career, Mailata has a new offensive line coach in Chris Kuper. The 43-year-old former NFL offensive lineman played for Mike Shanahan with the Denver Broncos and spent the last four seasons as the offensive line coach for the Minnesota Vikings, another offensive offshoot of the Shanahan/McVay tree.

Kuper is tasked with breaking down the nuances of the new scheme to the offensive line, and, ultimately, restoring the group to greatness after a down season in 2025, especially in the run game.

At age 29, Mailata said he is embracing feeling like rookie again as he learns the mechanics of the new offense from Kuper.

“Chris is awesome,” Mailata said. “Chris has been a great addition to the team so far. He’s bringing on new techniques. I think he’s very familiar with this new scheme that we have, and so his experience and knowledge within the scheme is really translating from the classroom to the field right now, and we’re learning a bunch of stuff.”

Kuper is replacing Jeff Stoutland, who departed the organization this offseason after serving as the offensive line coach since 2013 and run game coordinator since 2018.

Stoutland announced that he would not return to the Eagles in early February, when Mailata was in San Francisco during Super Bowl week. Mailata told The Inquirer he cried over the change, acknowledging that Stoutland had served as a father figure since the tackle moved to the United States as a 21-year-old.

Five months later, Mailata said he has come to terms with Stoutland’s exit in some ways. He said he reunited with Stoutland this offseason at his former coach’s house with their wives and Stoutland’s daughter for a “reconciliation dinner,” which helped him process his feelings.

“It’s one of those things where I’m at that point in my career where this is the business,” Mailata said. “We lost A.J. We lost Stout. This is how the business is, and I’ve got to find a way to find my feet again. I’ve got to find a way to lead this locker room again, regardless of whatever happens.

“Those are the two things that I have to face now, of … I don’t want to say it’s like this, but s— happens, and how do I get over this? How do I overcome this adversity or overcome this hurdle?”

Mailata said he isn’t shying away from the adversity that comes with the loss of impactful figures in the organization. If anything, he welcomes the challenge.

“When all is said and done and I’m retired, this is stuff I’m going to miss,” Mailata said. “I love this stuff. Figuring out problems.”

Mailata, like Uar Bernard, is a product of the International Player Pathway program. Before the Eagles selected the Nigerian defensive tackle in the seventh round of the draft, Mailata visited him and the rest of the IPP players while they were training in Fort Myers, Fla., ahead of their pro day in late March.

Mailata’s first experience with the 6-foot-4, 306-pound Bernard in the weight room left him in awe, he said.

“They had 315 on the bench, and he was repping 315 on the bench like it was 225,” said Mailata, who is 6-8 and 365 pounds. “And I was like, ‘Where did they find this guy? This is unreal. This guy is just a freak of nature, just repping out 315 like nobody’s business.’”

His lack of experience was just as apparent, according to Mailata. As he walked through defensive line drills, he was moving in almost a mechanical way, thinking through each unfamiliar movement.

Still, Bernard’s raw speed and power combined with his willingness to learn gave Mailata a sense of encouragement.

“You see him, his effort on the film, once he puts it all together, I think it’s a wrap,” Mailata said.

Mailata is the biggest success story to emerge from the IPP program. For every Mailata, there are dozens of players who never sniffed NFL regular-season action.

Mailata hesitated to draw comparisons between his journey and Bernard’s. But that didn’t make him any less optimistic about Bernard’s chances at having an impactful NFL career.

“I think two different positions, two different people,” Mailata said. “I think my story has influenced his people’s opinion of whether it will work out or not. I think it will work out, but only time will tell.

“It’s how much time he pours in, and I’m going to make sure that he pours in every little bit, every last drop into that bucket, and so we can get another great story out of Uar and he can represent his country, his family, his people on one of the biggest stages in the world.”