Jordan Mailata on new Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion: "He's an evil genius"

Sean Mannion is still months away from calling plays in an NFL game for the first time, but Jordan Mailata had high praise for the Philadelphia Eagles' new offensive coordinator.

"He's an evil genius, wizard," the Eagles' All-Pro left tackle said. "I'm just trying to give him his flowers, you know? Trying to show coach all the support because I believe in him."

Mannion, 34, is being tasked with bringing a brand-new offense to Philadelphia for the 2026 season. 

Mannion, who was on the Green Bay Packers' coaching staff the last two seasons, has spent his playing and coaching career around the Shanahan coaching tree.

The new offense in Philly will feature more under-center snaps for quarterback Jalen Hurts, more motion and a different running scheme.

But Mannion said the offense will be a blend, and they'll still run concepts that Hurts and the Eagles have been successful at over the years. 

"There's things I believe in and there's things that schematically I have a background in, but ultimately it's going to be a blend, and it's constantly going to evolve, and it's all with that exact goal in mind that you just said," Mannion said in his introductory press conference in May. "It's about maximizing things for the players. How do we make the Eagles the best team we can be, how we make the Eagles offense the best it can be, and how do we put all of our players in a position to really, really succeed and maximize their strengths."

Mailata said learning the scheme has made him feel like a rookie again. 

Mailata has only had one offensive line coach throughout his entire career: Jeff Stoutland. 

However, that changed this offseason when Stoutland stepped away from the Eagles after 13 seasons. 

Now, Chris Kuper is Philadelphia's offensive line coach to help Mannion install his scheme.

"Very grateful because I've been in the same system for the last eight years," Mailata said. "But now that I'm in a new system, it's like, 'Oh my goodness.' Red doesn't mean red anymore; red means like rainbow or something. It's different terminologies and different concepts of running things to set things up. Then you have the disguises with the motions and stuff, so it's been fun."

Mailata said the team has probably installed about 50% of the playbook so far. 

The Eagles will hold a two-day mandatory minicamp on Tuesday and Wednesday as Mailata and the team continue to learn Mannion's system. 

"The disguise, understanding the concept, has been really fun to learn," Mailata said. "And why we have to run this play to set things up, just understanding from a coach's perspective, has been really fun for the players, so that we can go out there and execute. It's something that I'm learning, I'm having that growth mindset of that we have to learn new things to progress, or even better ourselves. It's been really fun learning his new scheme."