Jalen Reagor needs a chance from the Eagles to prove he’s not a first-round draft bust

Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, and Nelson Agholor needed time to justify their Day 1 draft spots.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni (right) comforting wide receiver Jalen Reagor as they walked off the field after a loss to the Giants on Nov. 28, 2021.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

Published Aug. 12, 2022, 10:33 a.m. ET

Jalen Reagor isn’t Justin Jefferson, the receiver drafted 22nd after Reagor was taken 21st in 2020. Reagor might be fighting for his NFL life. He will be watched more than any other player as the Eagles play their three preseason games.

Regardless of how the preseason games go, the Eagles might benefit from a little patience. It has worked with other first-rounders.

Brandon Graham, drafted 13th overall in 2010, spent the early part of his career known as “Not Earl Thomas.” As Thomas, a safety drafted 14th, began to anchor the Legion of Boom in Seattle, Graham finished his first two seasons as an Eagle with three sacks, and Graham was reminded at every turn that he was occupying the spot that might have been held by Brian Dawkins’ replacement. But that wasn’t who Brandon Graham was. He averaged 6½ sacks over the next nine seasons, was a second-team All-Pro in 2016, went to the Pro Bowl after 2020, and strip-sacked Tom Brady in Super Bowl LII.

Fletcher Cox, drafted 12th overall in 2012, managed 8½ sacks in his first two seasons, but he didn’t become “Fletch” until his third year. In 2014, he made the first of four first- or second-team All-Pro squads, and in 2015 he began a run of six straight Pro Bowls.

Most significant, Nelson Agholor, the 20th pick of the 2015 draft, caught 59 passes for 648 total yards and three touchdowns in his first two seasons. In Years 3 and 4, Agholor averaged 63 catches for 752 yards and six TDs. Reagor’s totals for his first two seasons almost mirror Agholor’s: 64 catches, 695 yards, three TDs. Reagor had some big drops, too, but he had some pretty good grabs — not unlike Agholor.

What if Reagor can replicate Agholor’s third and fourth seasons?

Imagine the production that would mean on a team with receivers like A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Imagine if Reagor could compile a postseason like Agholor’s after the 2017 season, when Agholor caught 15 passes for 167 yards in three playoff games, including 11 catches for 84 yards in Super Bowl LII.

Compared with the bumper crop of high-level receivers taken after Reagor in the 2020 draft — Jefferson, Tee Higgins, Chase Claypool, Darnell Mooney, Michael Pittman Jr., Brandon Aiyuk, and a half-dozen promising others — Reagor already seems like a bust. But it isn’t unusual for a receiver to need a bit of time to adjust to the NFL.

Especially when he has been handicapped with Reagor’s burdens.

Uphill battle

Reagor was drafted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so he had no rookie camp, and he showed up for training camp out of shape. He was in worse shape in 2021; the offseason was again truncated by the pandemic, and he mourned a childhood friend who’d been killed.
Reagor’s quarterbacks have stunk. Carson Wentz lost his job after 12 games in 2020, and rookie Jalen Hurts wasn’t ready to take over. Hurts wasn’t ready last season, either; the Eagles had to change their scheme after seven games to a run-first attack when it became apparent that Hurts couldn’t operate a pass-heavy offense.
Reagor’s most productive receiver counterparts in 2020 were Greg Ward, a converted quarterback, and Travis Fulgham, both of whom have spent most of their careers on practice squads.
Finally, Reagor was drafted into Doug Pederson’s offense in 2020. Pederson was fired, was replaced by first-time head coach Nick Sirianni, whose offense is ... evolving.

So is Reagor.

Resolve

Tragedies struck again this year. His grandmother died in January: “That’s who basically raised me.”

His best friend, Jeff Gladney, a Texas Christian teammate and a first-round pick who’d signed with Arizona, died in a car crash in May.

These incidents didn’t break him. They made him stronger.

“Last year, me dealing with a lot — I wasn’t focused on my training,” Reagor said. “[Gladney] is who I trained with. It just made me go even harder.”

After two years of distractions and social media missteps and self-defeat, Reagor seems committed, finally.

Philadelphia has been spoiled by first-round receivers. Jeremy Maclin in 2009 and Smith in 2021 were plug-and-play talents the minute they arrived in Philadelphia, and Agholor figured it out.

Granted, sometimes teams will simply miss, as the Eagles did with Danny Watkins in 2011 and Marcus Smith in 2014. And yes, Marcus Smith and Watkins have more in common with Reagor than the others, in that they also were considered first-round reaches.

Neither had Reagor’s talent.

Neither showed this level of somber focus.

“I’m putting my head down and going to work. Not really worried about anything else but myself,” Reagor said. “I’m here, mentally, now.”

He’s got a job. He’s got a chance. He’s in the NFL, with at least two more games to prove why he should stay there. In Game 1, on Friday, he caught three of four targets for 26 yards and fielded two punts.

And he’s got perspective:

“It could always be worse.”

Eagles football is back! Inquirer Eagles beat reporters EJ Smith and Josh Tolentino will preview the first preseason action for the Birds live from Philly, detailing the roster battles and potential contributors ahead of the game. Tune in: Inquirer.com/EaglesGameday