Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata shared his sense of relief preparing to play the Dallas Cowboys without Micah Parsons in the NFL season opener on Thursday night, but head coach Nick Sirianni said Philadelphia has plenty to worry about.
“We have so much going on here,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, we’re getting ready to play the Cowboys, so he’s on your thoughts of game-planning, but they still have guys that we have to prepare for. Obviously, they got Kenny Clark, who is a really good player and they have good depth at the defensive end group, so you don’t get too wrapped up into that except for some of the things you’re doing with the game plan. But also understand that they have a lot of good players still over there and get ready for those guys and shift your attention to that.”
Mailata said he breathed a “sigh of relief” because Parsons is a player the Eagles always game-plan to slow down.
“I say that as a joke, but at the same time, it’s just kind of crazy,” he said. “The last four or five years that we’ve played the Dallas Cowboys, we’ve come up with a game plan because Micah’s a gamer. It is a sigh of relief that you don’t have to plan like that anymore. However, that is a talented D-line and a challenging defense. You’ve got to treat them with the same respect, with or without Micah Parsons. They’ve got Kenny Clark there. He’s been in the league a long time. He’s a great bloody player. So, now we’ve got to figure out how he affects our game plan and how we control that.”
With 335 QB pressures since being drafted in 2021, Parsons caused problems for a lot of offensive linemen during his four seasons with the Cowboys.
Mailata and the Eagles’ offensive line are getting more familiar with second-round rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku and have their own concerns on the offensive line.
Mailata said not having to contend with Parsons on Thursday night is a definite game-changer.
“It changes a lot. I’m gonna be honest with you, it changes a lot,” Mailata said. “Eleven (Parsons) is a great player and we always have protection plans built in for great players and now we just have to figure out the players that they have on their defense, how can we stop them?”
Tight end Dallas Goedert said he always finds Parsons and wants to know where he is before each snap.
“Now that he’s gone, they still have great players and they have a scheme that we haven’t seen, so we have to prepare for everything,” he said. “It’s really about us being on our game and doing what we do.”
