Jalen Reagor was the right pick for the Philadelphia Eagles in the first round, and he is about to prove everyone who thinks otherwise wrong. Reagor has just about everything you want in a receiver except for height, with speed to spare. He will make an immediate impact, and has the potential to be one of the best in the league.
Jalen Reagor is in the Perfect Position to Succeed
If you didn’t know before, Jalen Reagor is pretty freaking fast. According to Philly Sports Network, Jalen Reagor’s top in game speed was 22.6 miles per hour. The fastest in the NFL was Matt Breida last year, who got up to only 22.3 miles per hour. So needless to say, Reagor is a burner. Now you may be asking, “Why does this matter, Bradley? Speed isn’t everything.” According to Bleeding Green Nation, Carson Wentz led the NFL in accurately thrown deep passes that went incomplete with 12. Wentz now has a deep ball threat he can rely on, which is huge.
Speed isn’t only helpful for deep passes. Reagor is just as explosive running with the ball in his hands.
The Eagles love to run screens and short passes, and Eagles fans will love to see Jalen Reagor have the ball in his hands as much as possible. Jalen Reagor couldn’t have been drafted on a team that needed him more, and he fits what the Eagles want to do really well. Reagor has a real shot to immediately be a star.
Jalen Reagor’s Work Ethic
You’d be really hard-pressed to find someone who works harder than Jalen Reagor. According to Bleacher Report, he does at least 600 to 800 push ups every single day, which is just a tad higher than my average of maybe five per day. It shows on the field too. Despite being a smaller wide receiver, he plays tough. He has drawn comparisons to future hall-of-famer Steve Smith who was known for being strong. Jalen Reagor weighs around 10 to 20 pounds more than him, and is just as fast, if not faster. I’m not saying he’s better than Smith, but Reagor is an absolute beast! You can tell he loves the game, and is willing to do whatever it takes to improve. He just has the makeup of a superstar.
Why Jalen Reagor’s Drops are not an Issue
Dropping 9 of the 92 passes thrown to him in 2019 is obviously not a good look. However, in 2018, Reagor only dropped 6 passes out of the 137 that were thrown to him. So what happened? With a new quarterback in 2019, Jalen Reagor only received an accurate pass 31 percent of the time the ball was thrown his way. Why didn’t TCU just make me the quarterback? Even though not every incompletion was counted as a drop, it’s difficult to catch passes from someone when you have no idea where the ball is going to end up. Not to mention that he undoubtedly would’ve been playing while frustrated. I think we’re going to be seeing more of 2018 Reagor than 2019 Reagor in the NFL.
Summary
The Eagles are getting an extremely hard worker, physical specimen, and one of the fastest football players in the world in Jalen Reagor. He and the Eagles are perfect for each other. Philadelphia has their number one receiver for the next 10 years and a soon-to-be superstar in Jalen Reagor.
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1 Comment
Looking forward to seeing some speed for a change. Should make for an exciting season.