Jordan Mailata burst out laughing at the simple mention of “sea barnacles” on Friday.
He knows all about it.
Early in Mailata’s NFL career, he heard the same expression from offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, who refuses to let his young offensive linemen grow complacent when they’re not playing.
The Eagles this week opened the practice window for sixth-round offensive tackle Myles Hinton, who has been kept on his toes by Stoutland despite being on IR all season.
“He says, ‘I’m not going to let you get barnacles, get sea barnacles,’” Hinton said this week. “He asks me a random question every now and then to keep me on my toes. … Sea barnacles.”
Stoutland has been the Eagles’ offensive line coach for over a decade and there’s a method to his madness. It’s a lot of fun for reporters to watch younger offensive linemen learn his program.
It’s even more fun for veteran offensive linemen to watch their new teammates live it.
“I love that,” said Mailata, who didn’t play at all his first two seasons in the NFL. “I love that Stout’s consistent. He’s still teaching the same, has the same phrases, all that stuff. Just to see the consistency that he has over the years. That’s the beautiful part about it. The fact that Myles has to go through that is f—ing hilarious.”
The Eagles opened Hinton’s practice window this week after Lane Johnson suffered a Lisfranc sprain in his foot against the Lions. While Fred Johnson and Matt Pryor will be bumped up the depth chart, there’s a chance Hinton could provide some more depth.
Hinton (6-6, 323) was all smiles this week after his first practice of the season. While Hinton showed promise in his first NFL training camp, he was placed on Injured Reserve/designated to return with a back injury at final cuts. Wednesday’s practice was his first since the summer.
“I’ve been playing ball since I was about 7 years old and I’ve never been out of playing this long,” Hinton said. “Not seeing myself on film for this long and not doing anything for this long, it’s been kind of funky. But glad to be back. Very glad to be back. Hit something. Get back in the flow and knock some cobwebs off.”
The key to the last few months for Hinton was to stay as locked in as possible. It was all mental. And Stoutland made sure that Hinton’s mind didn’t wander and that he didn’t get any sea barnacles.
Just like he did with Mailata all those years ago.
“He’s not crazy,” Mailata said. “He’s a little crazy but it works.”
Assistant Director of Joy?
Jordan Davis always brings the juice, so it’s pretty natural for him to bring the cookies too.
While the slimmed-down defensive tackle won’t actually them anymore because of his personal fitness journey, he still brings in homemade cookies in every Saturday for his teammates.
“It brings joy to everybody,” Davis said this week. “If you see the way that Jeremiah Trotter goes for the snickerdoodles, yo, you would think he was a rabid dog. I’m like ‘Damn, dude, save some for the rest of the people.’ It brings joy.”
Reggie, the team’s resident Goldendoodle, has the official title of Director of Joy. But maybe Davis should be pulling an extra paycheck from that department too.
Davis, 25, was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Lions, but when asked about that honor, all he wanted to talk about was how much his teammates mean to him. Davis said his teammates make football fun, but he clearly makes it fun for them too.
“You have to make this thing fun because at the end of the day, this is a grind, this is an experience, this is the NFL,” Davis said. “It’s so cutthroat. You could be here today, gone tomorrow. But the time that we spend now is so important to me because I wouldn’t know what else to do. This is all I got. These people is all I got. Right now, while I’m here where my feet at, these people are all I got. Like, these are my brothers. I feel that wholeheartedly and that’s why I go so hard about the connection of the team because that’s how I feel. I wouldn’t have that juice, I wouldn’t have that same drive if it wasn’t for the team.”
For the last 15 seasons, Brandon Graham has been the primary guy bringing energy day in and day out to practice. He’s proud to watch Davis now carry that mantle.
“He’s just taking on that role naturally because that’s just who he is,” Graham said. “I’m proud of that for him. I know how it is. You have it for the most part every day but then some days because of your consistency, other people will be like, ‘Hey!’ They’re the ones helping you that day. You just see how infectious that is.”
As for those cookies, Trotter Jr. gave his review of the snickerdoodles:
“I think they’re really good. They’re soft. That’s my preference in a cookie, a soft cookie. Really good taste. Not too sweet but a good sweetness to them. I think overall for a snickerdoodle, it’s a really good cookie.”
Piling up assists
Vic Fangio this season has been quick to divvy up credit for plays where he thinks it’s appropriate, especially on the defensive line.
The Eagles have really adopted a group rush mentality this season, which means that sometimes the guy who creates a pressure doesn’t necessarily finish in the backfield. Jalen Carter does this a ton. Because of the attention he receives, Carter is often giving his teammates opportunities and they’re quick to give him that credit.
“We all give props to each other,” Carter said this week. “Usually when somebody helps us make a play, we thank them. You see last year when Nolan (Smith) trusted me to run that stunt against the Rams, I said ‘thank you for trusting me, man, let’s do it.’
“They come to me and say ‘that’s an assist.’ We give each other assists. Even though it’s not in the stat sheet and stuff but we give each other assists. Just to let them know, ‘Hey, you’re the reason I got this sack or you’re the reason I got this tackle.’”
The Eagles don’t actually keep track of their assists but maybe they should.
Although, Carter didn’t lie when asked if he gets the same satisfaction out of an assist that he gets from a sack or a TFL.
“I would prefer a stat,” Carter said, “but I’m always here to help my teammates. I always want to see everyone do good around me.”
A special teams bonus
The Eagles’ special teams units had a good performance agains the Lions last week and there was a bit of a bonus in that game: Their long snapper Cal Adomitis made two special teams tackles.
Those are fun to watch back in the meeting room.
“We get really hyped for anybody who makes a tackle but especially a long snapper,” said Jeremiah Trotter Jr., who is tied for the team lead in special teams tackles this season with 12. “I know people’s idea of a long snapper is they snap the ball and that’s about it. But Cal, he’s a great player too. He went down there and made some plays for us and got really good field position for the defense.”
Special teams coordinator Michael Clay called it an “added luxury” to have a long snapper who is able to make plays like that.
“Now they have to account for everyone,” Clay said. “They can’t just account for nine, they got to count for 10 in terms of that. Cal has done a really good job stepping in while Charley’s [Hughlett] getting back to getting healthy out here, in protection and field goal snaps and getting down and making some plays and we showed him making a couple plays.”
Review of the play-caller
It looked like the Eagles’ offense was turning a corner before the bye week with strong performances agains the Vikings and Giants.
But coming back from the bye week?
Just 10 points agains the Packers and just 16 points against the Lions. While the Eagles won both games, their offense desperately needs to improve. And the one guy drawing the most criticism — at least outside of the building — is offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
This week, head coach Nick Sirianni was asked about Patullo’s performance and how he reviews it week to week.
“I go through everything,” Sirianni said. “One way I look at it is situationally. I’m going to look at how we handled things situationally, how did we play two-minute, how do we play four-minute, how do we play backed up, third down, red zone, all those different things because there’s got to be alignment with the vision of how we manage the game as well. Then I’ll look [at] the design or anything like that. ‘Was this issue an issue that we lost because of play design or was this an issue that we lost because we didn’t execute?’ Always going to look at that and then just look at the flow of game. ‘Why are we doing things this and that [way]?’ Maybe it’s questions here and there. ‘Hey, why did you do this here? Why’d you do that there?’
“So, it’s just the interactive part of it that, I wouldn’t say it’s anything real unique besides the things I just talked about, but more so the flow of how you watch every game together and every practice together. ‘What’d you think here? What if we’d have done this instead of that?’ Again, I think he’s done a good job. We’ve found ways to win. We have a lot to improve on, and he’ll tell you he needs to continue to improve. We all need to continue to improve, but I think he’s done a lot of good things, and he’s got to continue getting better.”