NFL NFL Draft Scouting Reports

Jalen Reagor Scouting Report

George Zain April 16, 2020

A TCU commentator once said, “There’s speed, and then there’s Reagor!”.

The four-star recruit out of Texas’s Waxahachie High School originally committed to the University of Oklahoma before flipping to TCU. To think he could have been catching balls from Heisman caliber quarterbacks in Lincoln Riley’s system opposite CeeDee Lamb is frustrating, considering most of his shortcomings can be traced to poor quarterback play at TCU. 

Although Reagor’s statistics don’t jump out at you, his successful track & field history translated very well onto the gridiron, and that is partially what keeps him so high on everybody’s big board. He competed in the Texas University Interscholastic League track meet and won gold in the long jump with a 24″5 jump. Reagor also recorded a 26’ long jump earlier that year which was previously a Texas state record.

Unfortunately, Reagor had a particularly lackluster performance at the combine which made it increasingly difficult to disregard his disappointing college resumé. Before this, it was easy for teams eyeing him to rest on the promise of his speed, but he shook a lot of people’s confidence and gave them reason to second-guess his upside. On the surface, it is easy to understand the reservations people hold for Reagor, but all things considered, he has the potential to surprise a lot of people when he reaches the pro level.

Why the Combine Doesn’t Matter

  • 10-Yard Split: 1.52s (93rd Percentile)
  • Three Cone: 7.31s (14th Percentile)
  • Vertical Jump: 42” (98th Percentile)
  • Broad Jump: 11-06 (99th Percentile)
  • Bench Press: 17r (73rd Percentile)
  • Arms: 31.375”
  • Hands: 9.5”
  • Weight: 206

“Reagor Showed the explosiveness he was known for in his jumps, although his 40 was a tad disappointing. That said, he’s still more than fast enough to get open deep in the NFL.”

~Anonymous Draft Analyst

Going into the combine, many held the expectation that Reagor’s blazing speed would match that of Henry Ruggs in the 4.2 range. After mistakenly, at least in retrospect, putting on about 10 lbs of extra muscle that he is not used to playing with, he ran an embarrassing 4.47 which landed him in the 79th percentile. This was a huge detriment to his status among this year’s stout group of wide receivers because the main aspect of his game that kept him in the tier one conversation was his remarkable speed.

Luckily, on April 10th, 2020, Reagor was able to prove his unimpressive showing at the combine was just a fluke. TCU was unable to hold their normal Pro Day due to social distancing regulations caused by the coronavirus pandemic, so Reagor was relegated to performing at Plex. With Plex owner Danny Arnold in attendance along with the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions scouting director Miller McCalmon, Reagor ran two (unofficial) 40-Yard Dashes where he clocked in at 4.28 seconds and 4.22 seconds! His top time did not rival that of Henry Ruggs III, but rather John Ross III who holds the all-time combine record of 4.22 seconds. 

Fortunately, Reagor’s decorated career in leaping manifested itself with a 42” vertical jump and an 11-06 broad jump which landed him in the 98th and 99th percentiles respectively.

Although Reagor’s 40-Yard Dash was the most disappointing relative to what we expected from him, it was far from his worst relative to the rest of the athletes. His underwhelming performance in the shuttle run and three-cone placed him in the 13th and 14th percentile respectively which may be cause for concern among some evaluators. However, I believe D.K Metcalf may have eliminated some of the stigma surrounding those who do poorly in those categories on account of his excellent rookie campaign. Seeing Reagor’s performance at the combine reminded me a lot of Dalvin Cook in the sense that you saw one thing, but you knew it was not right. We saw Dalvin Cook run a 4.4, but we all knew he was not a 4.4 player on the field. The same applies to Reagor.

College Breakdown

  • 2019
    • Snaps: 784
    • Slot Snaps: 113
    • Wide Snaps: 657
    • Receptions: 43
    • Targets: 88
    • Yards: 611
    • Yards/Reception: 14.2
    • Touchdowns: 5
  • 2018
    • Snaps: 758
    • Slot Snaps: 127
    • Wide Snaps: 608
    • Receptions: 71
    • Targets: 131
    • Yards: 1040
    • Yards/Reception: 14.6
    • Touchdowns: 9
  • 2017
    • Snaps: 467
    • Slot Snaps: 35
    • Wide Snaps: 419
    • Receptions: 33
    • Targets: 58
    • Yards: 576
    • Yards/Receptions: 17.5
    • Touchdowns: 8
  • “Reagor’s production took a bit of a step back going from 2018 to 2019 due in large part to poor quarterback play at TCU.”

~Anonymous Draft Analyst

Jalen Reagor is all over the place in regards to his production during his tenure at TCU. In his freshman season, he showed solid production relative to the small sample size, but more importantly, he showed a lot of potential that left everyone optimistic about his future. 

He stepped into a much bigger role as a sophomore and saw his production increase exponentially! With almost 300 more snaps, he more than doubled his targets and receptions and came very close to doubling his total yards as well. His touchdowns saw an increase, albeit small, but he was showing significant progression nonetheless. Also, he forced 11 missed tackles and dropped just four passes. 

In 2019 Reagor saw a sharp decline in every aspect of his production. Despite getting slightly more time on the field, he saw remarkably lower targets, receptions, yards, and touchdowns. The primary reason for the decrease in production was abysmal quarterback play. According to PFF, only 30.7% of Reagor’s targets were accurate, which ranks fourth highest in the entire FBS. Fortunately, his numbers from 2018 were enough to convince the evaluators of his potential given the right circumstances.

The Upside

“The ability to consistently get behind defenses was still very much there even if the numbers don’t show it. I’ll take an explosive athlete with ball skills like Reagor any day of the week.”

~Mike Renner 

Reagor has upside that rivals those at the very top of this year’s gold mine of receivers. The prime aspect of his game is his other-worldly speed, acceleration, quickness, athleticism, and leaping ability. 

Reagor possesses an uncanny ability to ruin defenders’ days with double moves that leave them wondering why they woke up that morning. 

His contested catch ability rivals that of Julio Jones. Standing at a lowly 5’11”, although he very well could be chiseled out of stone, you wouldn’t expect someone of that small stature to be able to haul in some of the targets that he does.

 

The Downside

“The big question is if his massive upside can outweigh the inconsistency.”

~Mike Mulhern

Reagor’s downsides are shortlisted and slightly nit-picky. Given his contested catch ability as well as his ability to get defenders on his hip, you’d expect him to be better at fighting off defensive backs. Oftentimes he allows them to keep their hands on him during his routes. His tremendous acceleration hindered him from developing a repertoire to beat press coverage off the line of scrimmage, aside from his go-to hesitation move. The poor quarterback play deserves the lion’s share of the blame for Reagor’s down year in 2019, but he had his fair share of drops and bad ball tracking as well.

Where He Belongs

“He has NFL bloodlines and familiarity with the organization, as the son of former Eagles defensive tackle Montae Reagor.”

~Mike Mulhern

Seeing as how the Eagles have $24 million designated to DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffrey, both of whom are injury ridden and on the downside of their careers, they are going to need to revamp their receiver core very soon. With an albeit dull rookie campaign from J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, it is still too early to give up on him. Reagor will unlikely be a plug and play, but he will be a useful gadget player with mega-upside in the beginning, perhaps to the tune of a player like Tyreek Hill.

His niche complements that of Arcega-Whiteside, so the Eagles do not have to fear one staggering the development of the other. The two of them catching balls from Carson Wentz in Doug Pederson’s system will be an almost sure-fire recipe for success. Picking Reagor at 21 may be a bit steep considering the depth of talent at the position this year, but trading down for more assets is always an option if there are no must-have players available. That being said, if he’s available in the second round, he is a no brainer. 

One Reply to “Jalen Reagor Scouting Report”

  1. Well written and makes it interesting even for the person who is not a sports aficionado.

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