Eagles’ Jalen Reagor doesn’t mind fans booing him: ‘It shows that they’re paying attention’

When the boo birds come for Jalen Reagor, he can reference the advice from someone who has been there before.

The Eagles wide receiver, almost finished with his second season and underachieving relative to his first-round draft status, has caught the ire of Eagles fans on several occasions in the past year. He has had a few blunders as a punt returner, hasn’t been very productive as a gadget player in the offense, and had two costly late-game drops against the Giants in Week 12.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jalen Reagor takes ownership of late-game drops against Giants, saying he’ll ‘take the heat’

He has been booed at Lincoln Financial Field several times this season as a result, but the wide receiver said advice he got from defensive end Derek Barnett helps him compartmentalize the feedback.

“It was funny, honestly,” Reagor said. “... Derek Barnett told me just embrace that type of stuff. It shows that they’re paying attention. That’s just like the saying, once a coach stops yelling at you and stops coaching you, then you should be worried.”

Barnett and Reagor share the experience of Eagles players who haven’t played up to the expectations that come with being a first-round pick. Barnett’s in his fifth season since the team drafted him 14th in the 2017 NFL draft and hasn’t tallied more than 6.5 sacks in any of them.

Reagor was the 21st pick in the 2020 draft, taken one spot ahead of Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson. Jefferson has quickly become one of the top receivers in the league, further intensifying the scrutiny on Reagor.

Reagor said the advice from teammates like Barnett has been the difference when dealing with the criticism.

“It was funny to hear the boos,” Reagor said. “Then just hearing my other teammates just saying, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Just knowing they had my back regardless.”

After a disappointing rookie season, Reagor’s second year in the NFL has been slightly worse. Through 16 games, he has the same number of catches (31) as he did last year and his 280 receiving yards are 116 shy of what he managed as a rookie. His yards per touch went from 12.7 to 7.9 and he’s played just 65% of the team’s offensive snaps, which is down 2% from last year.

He has been the team’s primary punt returner and has struggled to make a significant impact in most games while also having a few questionable decisions on the back end.

Greg Ward, the eldest receiver on the Eagles’ active roster and one of the leaders among the position group, said he wants Reagor to ignore the outside noise.

“Block it all out and just keep moving forward,” Ward said. “All that stuff doesn’t matter. What matters is the next play, so just focus in and just continue to be you.”

It hasn’t been all boos for Reagor, though.

Eagles fans booed Reagor in each of the two home games that followed his late-game blunder against the Giants, but switched to cheers when he returned a punt for 39 yards in the rematch with the division foe.

According to special teams coordinator Michael Clay, Reagor called his big play the morning before the game.

“I don’t think the confidence ever wavers for Jalen,” Clay said. “It’s funny, I was on my morning commute to the stadium and I rarely get a text from anybody before 9 a.m. on Sundays. I got a text from Jalen saying he was going to get one this week.”

Said Reagor: “I know who I am. I’ll always say, I’m not here by accident. That’s how I keep my confidence up and just remembering what got me here. Just keeping that swagger. I had a feeling I was going to break one.”

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but the Eagles’ players want to play football.

While Nick Sirianni weighs the decision whether to rest some starters for this Saturday’s mostly meaningless matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith are among the players advocating to avoid the sidelines.

“I feel like I need to be out there,” Smith said. “I feel like the whole team needs to be out there. Just a momentum thing. We kind of got everything going in the right direction, so just keep that momentum building, just another week to fine-tune the small things and keep things going in the right direction. It means a lot, just to go out there and keep things going the way they’ve been going the past few weeks.”

If Smith does get some snaps, he’ll have his final chance to break the Eagles’ rookie record for most receiving yards in a season. DeSean Jackson holds the milestone with 912 yards in 2008, but Smith in a 17-game season is 37 yards behind the record.

Micah Parsons, the Cowboys’ top pass rusher, was added to the COVID-19/reserve list and will likely miss Saturday’s game.

Parsons has become one of the most productive rushers in the league since the Cowboys split his snaps between linebacker and edge rusher midway through the regular season. The rookie out of Penn State has 13 sacks, 30 quarterback hits, and 84 tackles, including 20 tackles for loss.