Jordan Mailata was playing the big room on Wednesday at the NovaCare Complex and the crowd was standing room only for the engaging second-team All-Pro in the media tent.
Buried in the star left tackle’s thoughts on how the Eagles’ run at a second consecutive Super Bowl championship should be branded was a jaw-dropping comparison for emerging second-year edge defender Jalyx Hunt.
"Oh man. He's gonna be special,” Mailata said of the Houston Christian product. “Just his burst. He has tendencies like Micah [Parson], just to be able to cut on a dime like that.”
Parsons, the Dallas Cowboys’ superstar, is already a three-time All-Pro and has never had less than 12 sacks in his four pro seasons. And he only finished that low last season because the Penn State product missed a month.
To be fair, Mailata didn’t compare Hunt, who played 344 defensive snaps (including the playoffs) as a third-round rookie last season with 3 sacks, to Parsons as a player, instead just noting the two have similar “tendencies” when measuring their athleticism.
Mailata is savvy enough to know many will miss that context, however, and still wasn’t shy to pump up Hunt anyway, even joking that GM Howie Roseman should give him a practice break.
"I'm so proud of that guy, the way he works,” Mailata said of Hunt. “I go from [former Eagles Pro Bowl selection] Josh Sweat to Jalyx man, it's crazy. I'm just like 'Howie, give me a break for one year."
Hunt started camp as the first-team overhang player opposite Nolan Smith with free-agent pickup Azeez Ojulari mixing in on occasion.
"Jalyx is gonna be a star man,” Mailata said. “And I'm glad I get to go up against him. I know that if he's giving me hell, he's gonna be giving everyone else hell."
