Jordan Mailata grew up playing rugby league for the Bankstown Bulls, and was selected for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs' Under 18s team in 2015.

The South Sydney coaching staff did not believe that Mailata would be able to physically keep up with the pace and nature of professional rugby league, due to the free-flowing play and limited stoppages in games.

[4] After seeing video clips of him playing rugby league, NFL executives invited Mailata to try out for their International Player Pathway Program.

[9] Pre-draft scouting reports written about Mailata evaluated him as a "work in progress", and gave him the pro player comparison of then-Buffalo Bill OT Conor McDermott.

Several NFL team general managers were present, including Jason Licht of the Buccaneers and Rick Spielman of the Minnesota Vikings.

[11] Mailata received doubts from scouts through the NFL drafting process and combine, as his weaknesses were listed as "will require an extensive period of development to learn technique", and "has never played a single down of American football".

[9] However, scouts did see positives in Mailata as they described him to have "very good physical traits" and "a tremendous size with a frame that carries weight well" due to his 6-foot-8 stature.

[9] IMG Academy strength and conditioning trainer Jay Butler stated that he had "never had anybody that looks like that," in reference to Mailata's sub-20% body fat percentage and physical attributes.

[12] He managed to record a 4.67-second time for the short shuttle, which would have equated to a top-10 score amongst left tackles at the official NFL combine.

In response to his own performance, Mailata felt optimistic as he hoped that coaches would get "a chance to see the progress I have made as I try to master the position.

[13] He became the second player to be selected with no American high school or college experience (the first being German Moritz Böhringer), following the path of fellow rugby league convert Jarryd Hayne.

[16] On 14 December, Mailata was placed on injured reserve after sustaining a back injury categorised as a stress fracture, which ended his rookie season before appearing in any games.

[20] On 13 September, Mailata made his NFL debut against the Washington Football Team, replacing injured rookie Jack Driscoll in the third quarter.

[21] Mailata made his first start for the Eagles in Week 4 of the 2020 season against the San Francisco 49ers, filling in for injured Jason Peters.

[27] On 31 August 2021, Eagles' head coach Nick Sirianni named Mailata the starting left tackle for the 2021 NFL season.

His new extension put him behind only Laremy Tunsil, Trent Williams and Andrew Thomas amongst the NFL’s highest-paid offensive tackles.