Ex-South Sydney prop Jordan Mailata is out to follow in the footsteps of Jarryd Hayne and break into the NFL.
Australian Mailata has been drafted in the seventh round with the number 233rd pick by the current Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s an amazing achievement considering the 21-year-old has never play a single game of American football.
Standing at two metres tall and weighing in at 160 kilograms, the Sydneysider spent 2017 playing for Souths’ Under-20s NRL side.
After impressing scouts in Los Angeles in November, Mailata relocated to Florida to learn and train. Last month he stunned scouts with outstanding numbers at the NFL Combine to earn a spot in the draft. Mailata, who was a damaging front-rower in rugby league, is aiming to be an offensive tackle or a tight-end in the NFL.
"My agent knew some NFL people who ran this international program and I was fortunate enough to get their attention,” he explained.
“They flew me out to LA last November and I worked out for them and I was fortunate enough to get on the program. I will only be 21 years of age so I thought why not give it a try, I am still young. I was considered one of the biggest rugby league players," he said. "I started training for the last four months to try and pick up the game of football. I am far behind but it is a challenge and it is something I knew I had to take on.”
In rugby league Mailata was like a taller, bigger version of former New Zealand rugby union superstar Jonah Lomu. He would skittle defenders with every carry and send them flying. He was a like a Goliath running at a field of Davids. But in a way his size and weight became an issue, as he would only play 20 to 30 minutes of an 80 minute game from the bench. The cardio levels and speed required for rugby league were too much for him to play for longer stints.
In 2017 for South Sydney’s Under-20s he averaged only 21 minutes again. But amazingly, he only made 12 appearances but scored eight tries. Unheard of numbers for a prop forward. Near the try-line Mailata proved unstoppable. The stop-start nature of the NFL might suit the Aussie of Samoan heritage perfectly.
Former Rabbitohs head coach Michael Maguire, who has worked with Mailata, believes he is tailor-made for the sport. “Rugby league requires a mix of aerobic and anaerobic fitness – attack, defend, get back the 10 metres and so on – and that’s not easy when you’re running around at his size,” Maguire told Player’s Voice.“The club was interested in signing him for another season but, right around the time those conversations would have kicked off, his agent informed us that he was thinking of taking him to the States for a crack at American football. ‘You’d be mad if you didn’t,’ I told him. It just made sense.
He's 6'8" and 350lbs.
Watch him run over people playing rugby in Australia.
He joins me live @nflnetwork #UpToTheMinute today at 5.
“I’ve been lucky enough through the years to spend a bit of time around NFL teams including the New York Giants and Jets, the Eagles, the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons. I’ve seen the type of athletes that thrive in that sport. Jordan ticks a lot of those boxes. He was hungry. Pretty much all our conversations centred on ways he could get better. He was a man mountain, but he wasn’t going to rely on his size and talent to get him there.
“He’s huge, obviously, but he’s also explosive out of the blocks and agile for a man his size. I’ve heard the time he clocked for the 40-yard dash would have put him in the top five players in his position at the NFL Combine. Whereas the repeat efforts required in rugby league weren’t suited to a bloke of his genetics, the explosiveness needed in the NFL definitely is. You don’t have to burn as much energy over long periods of time. It’s short bursts of maximum effort. That’s a great match for him.
“The fact he has played a hard-tackling contact sport his whole life will hold him in good stead. Just like a forward in rugby league, an offensive tackle has to assert themselves physically. The body contact won’t be anything new to him. When you stop and think how far he’s come in a couple of months in the US, it really is incredible.”
The Jordan Mailata story is only beginning, but it could be one hell of a story. From the cusp of the NRL to the doorstop of the NFL.
