20/20: Jalen Reagor

Welcome to the 20/20 series. As part of our continued Dynasty Scouts coverage and in preparation for the NFL Combine, we profile 20 of the top incoming rookies of the class of 2020 by giving you 20 facts you must know.

1.) Player Name – Jalen Reagor

2.) College – Texas Christian University

3.) Height/Weight – 5’11″, 195 pounds

4.) Birthdate – 1/2/1999 (21 years old)

5.) Class – Junior

6.) Basic college stats – Reagor broke out as a true freshman at 18.7 years old when he caught 33 passes for 576 yards and eight touchdowns. He followed that up with a tremendous sophomore season, amassing 1,231 scrimmage yards and 11 touchdowns, before disappointing in 2019 due to horrific quarterback play. He also got work as a return man – something I look for in my receiver prospects since colleges like to get the ball in the hands of their best players as often as possible.

Courtesy of sports-reference.com.

7.) NFL Draft round projection – Early day two. I think Reagor is a very talented receiver and expect him to be one the first receivers off the board in the second round, but I think Dynasty Twitter is higher on him at this point than the NFL is. This could change soon with the upcoming NFL Combine. While I view Reagor as a first-round talent, I don’t think he’s projected there at this time.

8.) Current NFL comparison – In my eyes, Percy Harvin is the perfect comparison (shoutout to DLF’s Ray Garvin for being the first to bring this one up), but Harvin isn’t active anymore. Their similarities are extensive. They are both explosive athletes that are a threat to take any touch to the end zone. Harvin and Reagor both have experience as return men and could align both inside and outside as receivers. Harvin was used far more extensively as a rusher, but Reagor also shows the aptitude to do this well.

9.) Best possible destination – Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals.

There are a few intriguing landing spots for Reagor that come to mind immediately. The Green Bay Packers have desperately needed another receiver alongside Davante Adams for years now, and Reagor wouldn’t be expected to be the alpha target right away. Instead, he could take the top off the defense and threaten teams the way Will Fuller (when healthy) does to complement DeAndre Hopkins.

The Eagles used former college quarterbacks and third-string tight ends as receivers down the stretch this season and are in desperate need of an infusion of talent at the position. While their injured playmakers should return healthy once again, Reagor could immediately jump in toward the top of the depth chart on a team with a good quarterback and an innovative play caller.

Kliff Kingsbury was a bit disappointing in 2019 with how little innovation he brought to the NFL as compared to what most were expecting, but he was unable to truly run the offense he wanted with as little talent at the receiver position as he had. Arizona likes to run four-wide, but didn’t have the personnel to do so. Reagor would provide them an explosive and versatile target for a young quarterback and head coach looking to take the next step.

Also, with the Chiefs rumored to move on from Sammy Watkins . . . can you imagine if they added a playmaker like Reagor to replace him? This seems incredibly unlikely just a year after spending a second round pick on Mecole Hardman, but a man can dream.

10.) Worst possible destination – A lack of significant draft capital to any situation with a crowded depth chart would be the worst-case scenario. There aren’t a lot of teams that would be awful for his value, but the Chargers, Panthers, Browns – just to name a few – would be bad fits because of the existing talent at the receiver position on those teams.

Of the teams with some uncertainty at the position, the Las Vegas Raiders (this feels weird to type) seem like one of the worst fits. Despite the barren depth chart, quarterback Derek Carr has an aversion to throwing deep despite having the arm to do so, prefering to look underneath. Reagor can win in the short game, but it feels like a handcuff on his tremendous potential to limit one of his biggest calling cards.

11.) Best current skill – Speed/overall athleticism. He can fly – he’s been rumored to run a sub-4.3 40-yard dash – and we’ll soon get to see him show off his wheels at the Combine. Henry Ruggs has effortless long speed and is probably faster in a straight line, but Reagor is much more twitchy and sudden as a mover. He’s a terrific leaper and his acceleration is rare. Dynamic is the perfect word to describe him.

12.) Skill that needs to be improved – Hands. He is aggressive with his technique at the catch point and makes it a point to use his hands as an active receiver, but he suffers from a lot of drops. You can live with drops if the player makes up for it in other ways, and he is dynamic enough as a big play receiver to overcome the lapses in concentration. He’s also not a very physical player, but that isn’t what his game is built around anyway. His releases are dynamic enough to separate from press coverage.

13.) Past/current rookie ADP – Reagor is a late first-round selection in February’s rookie ADP. As the eighth player off the board, he was selected inside the first round in all ten of the drafts used to compile this ADP. His earliest selection was sixth overall, and his latest was 11th. This may rise after he demolishes the Combine later this month. In superflex rookie drafts, Reagor’s ADP was ninth (he jumped Cam Akers here) and he only fell out of the first round in one draft (he was the 2.01).

14.) Projected dynasty value – As usual, a rookie’s dynasty value will somewhat hinge on the draft capital spent on him in the real NFL Draft. I think highly of him and believe he has the upside to develop into an asset you build a dynasty team around, but he’s far from that right now.

Thanks to Ryan McDowell, we know that Reagor is currently valued in between Michael Gallup and Christian Kirk. That may feel a bit rich for him at the moment, but he’s going to rise after his performance at the Combine.

He is already valued as a top-30 dynasty receiver. In my opinion, he has top-ten upside at the position, but there is a lot of youth at the top of rankings and it would take an early-career breakout for him to gain the momentum he needs to vault up our boards.

15.) Metrics – He played with a terrible combination of quarterbacks throughout his college career. His final season numbers look as poor as they do because of the revolving door he played with at the most important position on the field. He broke out in his age-18 season as a freshman, surpassing the 30 percent dominator rating threshold over his collegiate career (36.7%).

Per DLF’s new College Market Share App, we can see that Reagor’s tremendous sophomore season saw him land well above the baseline regression target mark in receiving market share metrics (yards and catches).

16.) Family ties – His father, Montae Reagor, was an NFL defensive lineman for nine seasons, winning the Super Bowl in 2006 with the Indianapolis Colts. He was a second-round pick by the Denver Broncos and played for them, the Colts, and the Eagles throughout his career. In his post-playing career, he also worked as a coaching intern for the Eagles.

17.) Athletic freak – Bruce Feldman, a college football columnist for The Athletic, writes an annual article highlighting the top-50 collegiate athletic freaks in the nation. The article is a must-read every year. Reagor made the list this year. On top of rare speed, he’s incredibly explosive and powerful. Here’s the entry:

21. Jalen Reagor, TCU, wide receiver

Arguably the most underrated player in the Big 12, Reagor put up gaudy numbers in 2018 despite the shaky Horned Frogs QB situation — only the two Kansas schools had a lower QB rating in the Big 12. Still, Reagor hauled in 72 passes for 1,061 yards and nine touchdowns. He led the conference in percentage of his team’s receptions at 30.1 (72-of-239). The 5-11, 195-pound junior clocked a blazing 4.29 40, and his power numbers are also impressive: a 620-pound squat, a 380-pound bench and a 380-pound clean.

18.) Recruiting profile – He was a top-100 recruit coming out of Waxahachie High School in Texas. Per 247Sports’s composite rank, he was the 13th best wide receiver in the country, the 96th overall player in his class, and the 15th best in the state of Texas. He received 21 offers – including one from Alabama and other top college offenses – but the most interesting “alternate reality” was from Oklahoma.

After originally committing to his father’s alma mater of Texas Tech, Reagor decommitted and committed to Oklahoma, the only other school he visited besides TCU. He later decommitted from there as well, before ultimately ending up at TCU. We’d probably be viewing him a lot differently if he had the opportunity to play with two consecutive Heisman winners and in a playoff offense throughout his career.

19.) Track star – He competed in track and field in high school. He believed it made him a better athlete and that it would help him become more explosive. In the spring of 2017, he also captured the long-jump gold medal at the UIL state track and field championships.

20.) Return prowess – He averaged 17.8 yards per punt return over his college career – a terrific number. He also has some exposure as a kick returner. My favorite Reagor fun fact, though – and this has nothing to do with fantasy football – is that he’s been a part of two identical trick plays on kick returns, where he’s lying down in the end zone attempting to go undetected before springing to his feet and taking off downfield.

When you try the play dead in the end zone kick return you can’t 1. Throw the ball forward or 2. Randomly fumble it. pic.twitter.com/4GMMB71ldF

— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) December 29, 2017