Back in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles took a low-risk gamble by drafting Jordan Mailata in the seventh round. At the time, Mailata was a former Australian Rugby player who had never played American football. Still, the Eagles trusted his rare 6’8”, 365-pound frame and were willing to develop him. Eight years later, Mailata ranks among the NFL’s top offensive tackles. Now, the Eagles are hoping to recreate that success with their 2026 international draftee, Uar Bernard. But it’s not that easy. 

Uar Bernard, a 6’4”, 306 lbs mystery prospect, put himself on the NFL’s radar through the NFL’s International Player Pathway program. In the athletic testing, Bernard recorded a 39-inch vertical, a 10’10” broad jump, a 4.63-second 40-yard dash, and 31 bench press reps. NFL analysts even labelled him a ‘freak athlete’ and compared him to NFL star Myles Garrett. But former Eagles centre Jason Kelce thinks that the rookie still needs to fix some issues to become the next Mailata. 

“There’s a lot on this kid’s shoulders because of what happened with Jordan Malaita, right?” Jason Kelce said in the latest episode of the New Heights podcast.  “To get a guy with this much physical talent in the seventh round is incredible. But he’s never played the game. There’s a level of stiffness, the change of direction, and the agility that he’s going to have to develop. If he can learn to play with great pad level, work on changing direction more efficiently, and use his hands, if this all pans out, you could have an incredibly high player with a high ceiling. Those are a lot of ifs.”

Bernard’s performance in the rookie minicamp is already getting a hot-and-cold reaction from the community. He needed help to put on his helmet, but he burst out of a stance quickly during a drill. The Eagles know they made a gamble here, and GM Howie Roseman admitted that his growth will “take a lot of time.” This will be the reality for Bernard and the team for the immediate future.

Growing up in Nigeria, he focused on basketball and soccer and had little infrastructure to support a professional athletic career. It was only a few years ago that Bernard transitioned into playing football, but not in an organized setting. Eventually, he developed into a player with the body of a great footballer, but his mechanics need tuning.

“He’s just not used to moving like a football player,” Travis Kelce added. “He can get going straight, but he’s just got to put in a lot of work, and it’s a different type of skill set, man. There’s an understanding of the game to have the savviness to play the game within the game, that is. He’s definitely a developmental guy.”

Mailata’s own NFL journey proves that the Eagles understand what they need to do with developmental prospects. They took their time to develop Mailata, who didn’t play a regular-season snap until his third year. But since then, Mailata has appeared in 90 games and even helped the Eagles in a Super Bowl win. Today, he is earning $22 million a year. The Eagles have no option but to take a similarly patient approach with Bernard. However, the onus is also on him to live up to what is being demanded from him.

Uar Bernard should show that he deserves to be here

“For every Jordan Mailata it works out with, there are guys that it doesn’t work out with,” Jason said, bringing in the other side of this story. “I remember Brock Lesnar got brought into a camp one year with the Minnesota Vikings, and he was there for like maybe one or two preseason games. I mean, he is a physical specimen. [But] you also have to have the knowledge of the game, the desire, and the love of the game. Especially if you’re going to be playing in the trenches, you’ve got to want it.”

Like Bernard, Lesnar came to the NFL with no formal football experience. But he was a specimen as well, and had competed in the WWE. At the 2004 NFL Combine, Lesnar then recorded a 4.7-second 40-yard dash, 35-inch vertical, a 10’ broad jump, and 31 reps on the bench press, which impressed many scouts. But he went undrafted due to concerns over his groin injury. The Minnesota Vikings still signed Lesnar as an undrafted free agent, but cut him before the regular season, and that was the end of his NFL career.

The league has changed a lot since then, and the Eagles have thought this situation through before offering that contract to Bernard. But if he doesn’t deliver what is expected of him in the next few years, things will become tricky for him, too. Right now, what Bernard needs to focus on is development and dedication towards earning a starting spot someday in the near future.

“It’s a dream come true for me because I’ve worked hard for this,” Bernard told reporters after being drafted. “I’ve not played football, but I’ve gone through some drills that made me believe that I’m going to get better every day.”

Ultimately, Bernard’s developmental path won’t be easy. He must work on his fundamentals from scratch, refine his technique, and adapt to the NFL speed. But if he commits fully to football, like Mailata once did, the rookie could turn this opportunity into something special.