Former Eagles scout breaks down Jalen Reagor’s fit

Making an impact as a rookie wide receiver can be tricky, just ask JJ Arcega-Whiteside. The Philadelphia Eagles are hoping for much more from him and also from their new additions to the receiver room. One of the big additions, 21st overall selection Jalen Reagor, has especially high expectations.

If he can meet those expectations is up to him and the coaching staff. New wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead has a ton on his plate, but would immediately ingratiate himself to Eagles fans if he gets Reagor on the right track early.

Beyond positional coaching, how the Eagles deploy Reagor based on how he fits their scheme will be important. Recently former Eagles scout, director of the Scouting Academy, and one of my biggest mentors Dan Hatman featured Reagor in his “Best Fits” video series.

The film breakdown gives various examples of areas where his game translates immediately to the offense and also areas in which Reagor must clean up.

I delve more into this subject during episode 15 of the 2020 BGN Draft specials, which was a sequel to my conversation with Brett Kollmann of The Film Room where we discussed the best and worst value selections in the draft from the first couple of rounds.

Here’s a loose transcript of my add to Hatman’s breakdown on Reagor from that episode...

“One thing I found interesting is that when Hatman polled different scouts and executives, he found that the public perception of Justin Jefferson being higher than Jalen Reagor was different than how the majority of the league felt, or at least with the people he talked with.

And I agree with a lot of the points Hatman made about what Philadelphia needs from it’s outside receivers. Guys that have the ability to dictate coverage, to make the safety wrong in that he has to give help outside which opens the middle, to give that defense something to fear and also a guy that isn’t just a deep threat, somebody that can work all three levels and that area for Reagor, we’re talking about nuance now, is something that has to be worked on but he’s shown flashes of working blind spots and snapping off routes and winning early in with his releases, it just needs to be more consistent...

Because if you watch DeSean Jackson and all you’re watching or paying attention to is when he’s running to space 40 yards down the field, I think you miss a lot about his game, the ability to set defenders up on the less sexy intermediate routes, so the Eagles have to get Reagor there.

And another thing Hatman mentioned was YAC being a big part of the West Coast offense and no offense is purely West Coast anymore and the Eagles have a nice mix but there’s a ton of West Coast concepts in that playbook and they’ve really lacked a guy with the ability to make guys miss after the catch...

I like the fit, I like the player, he’s got work to do to be the three-level threat the Eagles think he can be, but that’s not to say he’s a total project...

You can listen to that full episode on the media player below (or click here)...

You can also listen to my previous discussion with Brett Kollmann here.

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