Eagles training camp: Jordan Mailata, offensive line take accountability, and more (2024)

PHILADELPHIA — Soaked with sweat, the biggest bodies on the team ambled along the farthest practice field in one final series of sprints.

First day, first punishment. This one was self-imposed. The offensive line was penalized three times for false starts on the first practice of training camp on Wednesday. Cam Jurgens and Jordan Mailata gathered the position group after the team broke for the day. Mailata called their mistakes “unacceptable,” owning his own contribution to the penalties. For those mistakes, they’d run.

“We didn’t like how we were letting the stuff that we can control dictate the practice,” Mailata said. “We thought it was necessary to discipline ourselves.”

The decision signaled a notable continuity of player-led accountability. It was the first day of the first official season in which Jason Kelce is no longer playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. The six-time All-Pro is still a presence. Several players have said Kelce has been at the NovaCare Complex nearly every day. But with the former pillar absent from the field, new leaders needed to enforce measures to uphold the standard of what’s recently been one of the NFL’s best offensive lines.

“They didn’t want to do it,” Mailata said Thursday, after Day 2 of training camp. “But I think as a core unit, if one messes up, we all mess up because we have to have that same mentality of holding each other accountable. It’s just simple stuff at the line: communication, echoing the cadence, making sure you’re echoing the calls. That’s the stuff we can control. Some of the guys may not like it, but it’s too damn bad. Again, we’re trying to build a winning culture here, and honestly that’s the way you’ve got to get it done.”

The Eagles were penalized 23 times for false starts in 2023, tied for seventh-most in the NFL, according to TruMedia. The majority of them occurred on third down (11), needlessly complicating third-and-long situations (seven yards or more) for an offense that ranked seventh in converting them (29 percent). Mailata, who was penalized nine total times in 2023 for all violation types, according to Pro Football Focus, tied for 19th most among all linemen, is now “trying to maintain the standard.”

Perhaps the gassers worked. The offensive line didn’t commit any false starts on Thursday.

Mailata, 27, can now wield such a voice. Quite literally a large presence in the locker room at 6-foot-8, 365 pounds, the starting left tackle has doubly established himself with two contract extensions since the Eagles spent their 2018 seventh-round pick on a rugby player from Sydney, Australia, who entered the NFL with no collegiate football experience. The three-year, $66 million deal Mailata signed in April makes him the fifth-highest-paid left tackle in the league. He spent six seasons with Kelce, who demonstrated “everything that I learned” about “maintaining the standard.”

“It’s natural,” Mailata said. “I’ve been given examples, I’ve had the best examples in the room, I know what it should look like, and when we fall short, we just need something to pick ourselves back up again.”

Landon Dickerson upgraded within injury report

Dickerson participated with limits on Thursday after missing the first practice of training camp with a toe laceration. The starting left guard joined the Eagles during warmups, but he didn’t practice during any of the 11-on-11 or 7-on-7 drills. Mekhi Becton once again replaced Dickerson.

Oren Burks, previously a backup linebacker and special teams staple in San Francisco and Green Bay, did not practice on Thursday due to a knee injury.

The Eagles waived offensive tackle Gottlieb Ayedze, who began training camp on the active non-football injury list, and added wide receiver Griffin Hebert. Hebert, a former wide receiver and tight end at Louisiana Tech, caught three passes for 21 yards in the 2023 preseason with the Seattle Seahawks before they waived him.

Jordan Davis arrived ‘more conditioned’ for training camp

Davis stated plainly and openly after the 2023 season that he knew he needed to be in better shape. The defensive tackle, listed at 6-6, 336 pounds, knows he can be a force when he’s consistently available.

He’ll need to be. Defensive linemen tend to play a higher percentage of snaps under newly hired defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. General manager Howie Roseman — known for his hefty investment in the defensive trenches (three consecutive first-round picks from 2021-2023) — has favored a steady rotation. Roseman said Wednesday their blended philosophies will yield a platooning strategy that’s “probably a little bit different, but not significantly different.” The Eagles “still need guys rotating,” Roseman said, but “players are coming into camp in great shape knowing that they’re going to play more.”

Generally, it’s the exterior defensive linemen who’ve played at a higher clip under Fangio.

Consider the 2023 Miami Dolphins: Christian Wilkins (6-4, 310), a defensive end in the base 3-4 scheme, played 80.9 percent of the defense’s total snaps. Raekwon Davis (6-7, 325), Miami’s nose tackle, totaled 45.07 percent.

Or the 2021 Denver Broncos: Dre’Mont Jones (6-3, 281), another defensive end, played on 56.51 percent of the defense’s total snaps. Mike Purcell (6-3, 328), the team’s starting nose tackle, logged 33.21 percent.

Jordan Davis, a nose tackle, totaled a similar share to Fangio’s nose tackles in Philly’s system last year (44.66 percent). So, it’s more probable that Jalen Carter (48.45 percent in 2023) and Milton Williams (42.51 percent), who’ve played outside Carter so far in training camp, will see a more significant jump in snaps.

But Davis must be more consistent within whatever percentage his share ends up being. He said he accomplished his offseason conditioning goal of being “better than where I left.” He spent the summer in Georgia and returned to his pre-draft routine: position technique on Tuesdays and Thursdays, conditioning Monday through Friday. He refined his diet.

The results are “encouraging right now,” Fangio said. Fangio, an old-school coach unafraid to call out his players in the film room, said he complimented Davis on his form along the line, his ability to showcase “a little bit of bend in his body that I don’t think I’ve seen him do before.”

“I mean, when you’re not tired, you can bend a little bit more,” Davis said. “You know, when you get tired, that’s when you start to slack off in your technique and stuff like that. Your technique gets a little worse, and you know, we just want to make sure that we’re conditioned enough so that we can play the same way.”

Competition continues at cornerback

The cornerback slot opposite Darius Slay remains the Eagles’ most crowded position battle in training camp, even with second-round rookie Cooper DeJean sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Isaiah Rodgers, reinstated from a one-year gambling suspension during OTAs, joined Slay with the first-team defense during 7-on-7 drills. Kelee Ringo played opposite Rodgers in place of Slay for the majority of Thursday’s 11-on-11 drills. Ringo emerged as a contender during the offseason, playing with the first-team defense for most of minicamp. The 2023 fourth-round pick remains noticeably more refined, but a true sense of this position battle won’t likely emerge until the first preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens on Aug. 9.

Quinyon Mitchell, the No. 22 pick, is only two practices into his first season. He was deployed once again with the second-team defense on Thursday, this time in tandem with Eli Ricks. Fangio is still experimenting with Mitchell in the slot. If Ringo or Rodgers seizes a starting role on the outside, Mitchell may begin his career within the defense’s nickel and dime packages.

Avonte Maddox, the team’s incumbent starting nickel, remained with the ones on Thursday. Journeyman Tyler Hall subbed in for Maddox during 11-on-11 drills and saw reps with the first team.

Quick hits

• Zack Baun again appeared first with the defense at linebacker next to Devin White during team drills. Fangio said “I like Zack,” although Baun mostly played along the edge in four seasons with the New Orleans Saints. “We think he can do it,” Fangio said.

• The Eagles got younger in the offseason, and Roseman said the younger players will have plenty of opportunity to prove themselves. Rookie linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr., second-year defensive tackle Thomas Booker and second-year linebacker Ben VanSumeren each logged snaps with the first-team defense on Thursday.

• Trotter Jr. went down on the final play of practice, gripping what appeared to be his left calf. Trainers massaged the leg, as if it were cramped. Trotter waved off the cart as it approached. He then stood under his own power and stepped into the cart, which drove off as practice ended.

• Max Scharping, a former guard with the Houston Texans and Cincinnati Bengals, played right tackle with the second-team offense on Thursday. Scharping (6-6, 325 pounds) has only totaled three snaps at offensive tackle in his career, all in 2020, all at left tackle.

• Saquon Barkley can still stop on a dime. On a run during 11-on-11 drills, Barkley sprinted into a crowded middle, halted with jarring suddenness, then avoided a defender by taking off along the right edge. No full pads. No full contact. But the movement by the running back is promising for a team that desires more yards after contact.

(Top photo of Jordan Mailata: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)

Brooks Kubena is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering the Eagles. Brooks has covered the NFL since 2021, most recently as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle covering the Texans, and he previously reported on LSU football for The Advocate | Times-Picayune from 2018-2020. Brooks, a graduate of the University of Texas, has received APSE National Top 10 honors eight times for his reporting, which includes his beat writing coverage during the 2022 season. Follow Brooks on Twitter @BKubena