‘That’s imposing’: Eagles view Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson as future O-line cornerstone pieces

When the Eagles spent a 2021 second-round pick on Landon Dickerson, the team believed he would eventually replace All-Pro center Jason Kelce. After all, Dickerson was a unanimous All-American at Alabama and he won the Rimington Trophy as college football’s best center.

But after recovering from a torn ACL, Dickerson made his debut last season at guard in Week 2, and impressed his bosses tenfold. He initially was placed at right guard, but Dickerson was moved to left guard following Isaac Seumalo’s season-ending injury in Week 3, where he made his case to be a future cornerstone at the position, playing alongside left tackle Jordan Mailata.

“Seeing Landon and Jordan next to each other — that’s imposing,” general manager Howie Roseman said recently.

Together, the duo of Dickerson and Mailata represented 697 combined pounds of muscle and force. Throughout the remainder of last season, the pair protected the blindside of quarterback Jalen Hurts, and they helped pave lanes in the run game with the Eagles leading the league in rushing.

WIth Kelce returning for his 12th season, the Eagles selected another second-round center, Cam Jurgens, in last month’s draft. Dickerson possesses plenty of positional versatility, but it appears he’ll be staying at left guard for the foreseeable future, and potentially long-term.

Let Roseman explain.

“We felt like the chemistry that they had developed going forward and how young those guys are, just developing that left side,” Roseman said of Dickerson and Mailata’s relationship. “And we’ve seen something like that when we played really well when we had [now-retired right guard] Brandon Brooks and [right tackle] Lane Johnson.

“But I think as we went through it and looked at where we were and saw how powerful that side is and how important that was going forward and the chemistry that they developed, we felt like [it] was the right thing for us to keep that way.”

The 6-foot-8, 365-pound Mailata, 25, has blossomed nicely considering that he was an Australian rugby player who had never played football before he was drafted in 2018 as a product of the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program. He and Dickerson made nine starts alongside each other, and enjoyed success during the second half of the season as the Eagles pushed their way toward a playoff berth.

Before the season opener, the Eagles had signed Mailata to a four-year extension with $40.85 million in guaranteed salary. Based on his performance from last year alone, that deal could wind up being extremely team-friendly with Mailata already proving his worth at a premium position on the o-line.

“The standard has always been high, regardless of how many years I’ve been a starter,” Mailata said last week at the NovaCare Complex. “The contract [offers] that sense of stability, where I’m financially set. But when I walk into this building, I have the mentality like I have no contract.”

Mailata has experienced quite a busy offseason. He spent several weeks in Los Angeles, where he appeared on Fox’s The Masked Singer. Mailata was disguised in a costume (famously known as the “Thingamabob,” and he performed renditions of multiple hit songs throughout The Masked Singer’s seventh season.

Upon his return to Philadelphia, Mailata has been all business as he prepares for another season alongside Dickerson.

“Our relationship we have, the carryover is a lot,” Mailata said. “We have a good bromance going on. Our girls always look at us like, ‘What’s going on here?’ I see that dude like my brother. I’m glad that we have that relationship because when we’re on the field, you want to just play harder and faster, and make sure that you’re listening in the huddle for the right plays.

He concluded: “It’s really blossomed ... Building that brotherly love off the field, you carry it over on the field because you start to love that person as your brother.”