Jalen Reagor

Position: Wide Receiver

College: Texas Christian University

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 195 lbs.

Overview: Jalen Reagor is a wide receiver with elite speed that offers a home run threat anytime he touches the ball. Using his speed, Reagor can threaten opposing defenses as a deep threat target and through yards after the catch.

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Pro’s:

Speed:

During his time at TCU, Reagor ran a 4.32 40 yard dash (fastest in program history) and it really shows up on tape. He is an explosive twitched up athlete that can accelerate to top speed in an elite manner. His long speed has another gear that allows him to separate from defenders in a sprint to the end zone. There are very few players that can keep up with his straight line speed.

Deep Threat:

Reagor’s rare speed allows him to blow past defenders and separate down the field. His presence will force teams to bring safety help over the top. His speed, vertical route running, and tracking ability makes him one of the best deep threat WR’s in this class.

Route Running:

He didn’t run a full route tree at TCU, but the tools are there for him to be an elite route runner. As I’ve learned from previous WR prospects (like AJ Brown), it is hard to knock a player for something that they were not asked to do in college. It is more about projecting the traits that they have to determine if they could run a more advanced route tree in the NFL and I believe that Reagor is more than capable.

His best routes in college came in the vertical plane. This include post, corners, crossing, and go routes that go down the field. However (as shown multiple times in the Tweet below), his best route would be his post-corner route, where he sells the post using his shoulders and head before breaking back towards the corner.

His breaks are sudden and demonstrates great burst out of his breaks. He does a great job of maintaining his speed when he is making subtle cuts in his vertical routes. Reagor consistently extends his arms late on the stem of his vertical routes against opposing defenders to maintain or create additional separation before the catch.

Similar to Tyreek Hill, he has quick feet to escape press coverage, but alternatively is too dangerous to give a free release at the line.

Versatility/Yards after Catch Ability:

With his elite long speed and ability to make people miss in the open field, Reagor is a threat to take it all the way every time he touches the ball. He can be used in a gadget manner by giving him jet sweeps, screens, shallow crossers, or even a hand off from the running back position. Whatever way you can, it is best to give him the ball as much as possible. The term “gadget player” often has a negative connotation inferring that a player is unable to perform the full duties of an NFL WR, but that is not the case for Reagor. Reagor can be used as a gadget player in addition to being a well rounded WR.

Tracking the ball/High pointing:

For a smaller receiver, Reagor excels at tracking and high pointing the ball down the field. Coming out of high school, Reagor had an impressive 38.4 inch vertical jump. This allows him to elevate over cornerbacks to catch the ball.

Reagor is great at tracking the ball over his shoulder in his vertical routes. Despite his lack of length, he is able to extend away from his body to increase his catch radius. Jalen has a great feel for attacking the ball in the air.

Return Potential:

While his returning production at TCU has not been anything special, given his traits he has the potential to become an impact players returning kicks and punts. He showed flashes in college.

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Con’s:

Production:

One of the common denominators in Jon Robinson drafted wide receivers is great college production. Tajae Sharpe, Taywan Taylor, Corey Davis, and AJ Brown all had at least two 1000+ receiving yard seasons in college. Reagor does not have this production, but I believe exceptions can be made for players with tremendous potential like Reagor.

However, it is important to put context to production or lack there of. We saw how little Tannehill produced in the playoffs, but everyone who actually watched the games know how big of an impact Tannehill made. Similar things can be said for Reagor. After watching film, I saw two main causes of the lack of production — one his fault (drops) and the other out of his control (poor quarterback play). This resulted in a ton of yards and touchdowns being left on the field. I’ve included a couple examples, but there were so many more.

In 3 years at TCU, Reagor played with 7 different QB’s and they were all pretty terrible. I mean check out the QB stats in 2018 during Reagor’s most productive season.

The statistics from PFF also support the claim that Reagor had some pretty terrible QB play.

Drops:

As a WR prospect, skill wise Jalen’s biggest negative is his drops. The two main causes of his drops are his lapses in concentration and his weak hand strength at the catch point.

The lapse in concentration is often due to him not looking the ball in and bringing his head up too early to create yards after the catch. This also seems to be due to Reagor hearing “footsteps” and looking around to avoid contact. This is a bad habit that can easily be corrected during practice.

The other cause is not as easily fixable. The other times Reagor would drop would be caused by his weak hand strength. Reagor has no problems tracking the ball and getting good hand-to-football alignment, but at the catch point he has trouble maintaining control of the ball through contact and hand fighting with defenders. Defenders are often easily able to poke the ball out at the catch point.

Size:

This is hardly a negative in today’s NFL as we have seen plenty of sub-6 feet WR’s excel in the league, but physically his size does reduce his overall length and put a limit to his catch radius. However, he does a great job of extending his arms and tracking the ball to compensate for this. Also, he is pretty thickly built resembling a Tyreek Hill-type shorter and muscular physique.

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Why he fits for the Titans: While the Titans already have a speedy WR in Kalif Raymond, Jalen Reagor would be a massive upgrade to this deep threat role, while also adding more value in special teams and yards after the catch. Reagor offers more speed and overall wide receiver ability over Kalif. Reagor’s skill set would add more deep threat component to the Titans offense to prevent teams from stacking the box against Derrick Henry without consequence. Reagor would be perfect in the Yankee concept that Arthur Smith loves calling. The best offenses in the NFL are able to threaten every part of the field and Reagor would help the Titans do just that.

Comparison: Curtis Samuel/Mecole Hardman

Draft Grade (Value): Late-1st

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