It’s been about 10 hours since the eagles took TCU receiver Jalen Reagor with the 21st overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft.

Do you like the pick? Hate the pick? No opinion at all?

One thing that’s clear is that the Eagles were specifically looking for speed and playmaking ability on the offensive side of the ball, and Howie Roseman was honest about that when he compared this wide receiver class to the baked goods at a local coffee chain.

“This is a very good receiver draft, and there are a lot of different flavors,” Roseman said after the first round selection. “I joked at some point it was like going to Dunkin’ Donuts and picking out a different kind of donut. Everyone had their favorite type and there was a lot of debate and discussion, a lot of good players at that position in this draft. But Jalen fit something that we were really looking for. He is an explosive guy, his ability to contribute as a receiver, as a returner, his ability to be explosive with the ball in his hands were all things that we were looking for, and coach and his staff talked to us as a staff about things that they were really trying to stress.”

I think we’d all agree that the Eagles desperately needed those things. They sorely lacked a deep threat and dynamic playmaker, somebody who could convert on big plays and do shifty and exciting things with the ball in his hands. They obviously weren’t getting that from two tight ends (Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert), a veteran possession receiver (Alshon Jeffery), and a slot receiver with drop issues who was moved around to cover for injuries (Nelson Agholor).


That’s why they went out and got Reagor, even though he was graded as a late first round or early second round pick on most draft boards. Clearly they identified this guy, liked his skill set, and didn’t think he was going to be there later.

But why not Justin Jefferson? The LSU receiver was available at 21 and they passed.

“I think for us, we looked at those options,” said Roseman of taking Jefferson. “It was important to us that certainly we kept our high picks. We haven’t had a lot of those. And guys really weren’t in a range where it was even in consideration that we could get somewhere without a really high pick. And then what we looked for, we were just trying to find the right fit for our football team. A lot of good players at that position and a lot of opinions about how good these players are. You’re talking about really good players, and it’s just the fit. It’s how the coaches envision these guys being used and what they’re looking for to fit our quarterback skill set. So that was what we were trying to do, find the right fit for the Philadelphia Eagles and where we are as a football team, and be a complement to the other players we think we have on offense.”

Jefferson would have been an interesting pick, since he played the slot in 2019 but mostly on the outside in 2018. Obviously they felt like Reagor’s skill set better addressed their needs.

CeeDee Lamb was also available at pick number 17, which the Cowboys used to take the Oklahoma stud, who was rated as the best receiver in the draft by some experts, right up there with Henry Ruggs and Jerry Jeudy.

“We’re very aggressive in working the phones and having these conversations with teams and trying to figure out where we can move and when we can move,” Roseman said of the Lamb question. “It just has to work for both sides obviously, but we are also very comfortable sitting here and taking a player that has a great skill set for what we’re looking for. Like coach [Pederson] just said, we knew there were a lot of talented receivers in this offense and there is a lot of different flavors, and this was the one we felt could really help our football team in multiple ways.”

Reagor is a solid player who went hot and cold at TCU and suffered from some pretty spotty quarterback play. He only spent three seasons in Fort Worth but had four different quarterbacks throwing him the ball, none as talented as Kenny Hill in 2017, when Reagor was a freshman.

As such, Reagor turned in some clunky stat lines, catching, for example, just one pass against Oklahoma and one pass against Baylor this year, which were the best teams in the Big 12 and two most difficult games on TCU’s schedule.

But his big play ability is pretty nasty. Even in a down statistical 2019 he still had catches of 55, 42, and 44 yards. In 2018, he gashed WVU for 150 yards and had four receptions of 50 yards or more. Sometimes you’d be watching a TCU game and he would be rather quiet, then out of nowhere he’s streaking down the field and into the end zone.

Doug Pederson on that:

Obviously number one was the speed. This guy, he can definitely stretch the field. His vertical for a 5’10”/5’11″ guy, he can elevate. He can get balls above the rim, as we say. He has the flexibility of not only playing outside, but also playing inside and his flexibility as a special teams, punt return, and possible kickoff return guy. So this guy has multiple roles coming out of college, and we’re going to see where he best fits us when we — probably training camp before we make that decision.

Any receiver that has this type of skillset, much like DeSean, with the speed he has, earlier in his career, you find ways to put the ball in their hands, and there is obviously a way to do that. You see it on film. You see the receiver screens on film. You see the vertical threat on film. The chance of putting him in the slot, putting him outside in different things, in different possibilities.

One mock draft compared Reagor to Curtis Samuel, which makes sense. Both guys have the same type of height, weight, and athletic profile, with good speed. Reagor similarly ran the ball a bit and had two rushing scores in 2018. He returned a couple of punts for touchdowns as well. He’s more of a “get the ball in my hands” type of player, if that makes any sense, and I’ll begrudgingly share this video of him cooking my team:

Reagor didn’t play against a ton of amazing non-conference teams during three years at TCU, but he did show well against Stanford and Ohio State.

Here’s his out of conference game log:

2019

  • at Purdue: 3 catches for 29 yards, 3 carries for 11 yards
  • vs. SMU: 2 catches for 2 yards, 1 carry for 29 yards
  • vs. Arkansas Pine Bluff: 5 catches for 71 yards and touchdown
  • (no bowl game)

2018:

  • vs. Southern: 4 catches for 45 yards and touchdown, 1 carry for 9 yards
  • at SMU: 4 catches for 53 yards
  • vs. Ohio State: 7 catches for 98 yards, 1 carry for 4 yards
  • vs. California: 0 catches for 0 yards, 3 carries for 9 yards (quarterbacks threw nine picks in this disaster of a bowl game)

2017

  • vs. Jacksonville State: 2 catches for 37 yards
  • at Arkansas: 1 catch for 10 yards
  • vs. SMU: 3 catches for 79 yards and touchdown
  • vs. Stanford: 5 catches for 169 yards and touchdown

Reagor also played as a freshman in the 2017 Big 12 championship game, a blowout loss in which he caught two balls for 30 yards and a touchdown.

He ran a 4.47 40-yard dash at the combine, which you’d think might be a little faster, but here’s what Roseman said about that:

Well, I think that you see the separation on tape. You see the vertical separation as an outside receiver, and those things are hard to find. When you look at kind of this Draft about guys who can just separate as an outside vertical receiver, there are not a lot of those guys. Those guys are hard to find and they’re hard to find in this league. You see it, that it really fits our quarterback skillset. Our quarterback likes to throw the ball down the field and make vertical throws.

And obviously you know the things that Jalen did test well and the play speed, and we talk a lot about this RIFD (radio frequency identification) data, and so you get the GPS numbers on these guys. So you can see how they’re running in games and their speed in games. He’s running at a really high level. He’s been really fast in those games.

Then obviously he did test super explosive when you look at the vertical and the broad and stuff like that. You see the explosiveness on tape, and then you had it in the testing.

You see some of his speed on this play, which, for context, is a 4th down play with a lot of defenders up on the line, but I pulled this one specifically because it’s an example of how smooth he is when he hits space with the ball in his hands:

I’m personally a little skeptical of the pick, probably because I’m jaded and burned out after years of watching bad Big 12 football, but Reagor does have a ton of talent. The Eagles had absolutely nothing in the dynamic playmaking department in 2019 and 2018, and with the injuries to DeSean Jackson and Mike Wallace, Nelson Agholor had to move from his preferred slot position to fill holes on the outside. The result was a plodding and slow offense that really lacked downfield and YAC threat.

Reagor should fill that void, and even if you’re not super excited about the pick, rest assured that he addresses one of the biggest problems this team was facing.