It worked once with Jordan Mailata so why not try again?
The Eagles’ current International Pathway Program exemption is a projected offensive tackle from Australia, the 6-foot-5, 320-pound Laekin Vakalahi.
The path to Vakalahi, 21, is an interesting one involving international scout Chris Naeole, a 1997 first-round pick by the New Orleans Saints who is a native Hawaiian.
A friend of Naeole happened to walk past Vakalahi’s vacationing father, noticed he was a big guy, and started chatting him up. The elder Vakalahi namedropped his bigger boys and that information was passed on to Naeole, who set up a workout in Wellington, New Zealand where Laekin was serving a mission for his church.
What Naeole found was a kid with 35-inch arms and an 83-inch wingspan, metric manna from heaven when it comes to NFL offensive tackles.
Mailata, of course, has already developed from Australian football novice into one of the game’s best left tackles with the help of highly-regarded offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, so much so that Mailata has already been rewarded with two different $60 million-plus contract extensions.
“It’s pretty comparable,” Mailata smiled when asked about the similarities before explaining that Vakalahi is somehow a more pristine lump of clay for Stoutland than he once was.
“I had about three months [in the International Pathway Program] and I came from a semipro sport [Australian rugby],” Mailata said. “Laiken’s coming right from his Mormon mission. A little different there.
“At least I had experience with routine and what a professional lifestyle of an athlete would be. Then I had three months to adjust before I got to the NFL through the IPP program. He’s just walked in off the street.”
It took Mailata nearly three years before he showed Stoutland he was equipped to handle the rigors of protecting Jalen Hurts’ blind side.
Even in a best-case scenario, Vakalahi is going to be a multi-year project for the Eagles' O-Line guru.
The young man does have a few advantages over Mailata when it comes to the end game: the proof provided by the Eagles’ current star that these kinds of chances can work out and Mailata himself, who has not only developed into a great player but a team leader who has embraced the standard set by those before him in the Eagles’ offensive line room.
“We’ve had great leaders in the room, and I did my best to lead when I could,” Mailata told SI.com’s Eagles Today. “We had a phenomenal leader in [Jason] Kelce, El Capitan. I knew that I was trying to take notes off of everything that Kelce was setting.
“... I’d like to think I’ve always been kind of like a natural leader and when we talk about that we have to talk about the standard that was set before. Kelce leaving was a big part of always maintaining that standard. That was his go-to, maintain the standard at practice, walkthrough, to game day. That’s all I’m trying to do now because I learned from the past six years under Kelce and Lane [Johnson].”
With that kind of incubator for Vakalahi who says lightning can’t strike twice?
“The NFL has done a great job of continuing to discover talent around the world and we’re pretty fortunate in Australia to have an NFL academy on the Gold Coast to scout the Asia/Pacific region and see what other stories can come from it,” Mailata said..
