CUTTING DRAFT BUST REAGOR WOULD HAVE BEEN A HUGE EAGLES MISTAKE ADMISSION
By Max Harper
Hard to believe, but Jalen Reagor is on the Eagles Final 53.
The 2020 first-rounder, relegated to a near-nonexistent role with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith giving the WR room some real juice, survived final cuts and might be better off without the pressure of performing atop the depth chart, a la Nelson Agholor years ago.
The Eagles will never admit this, but if they had cut him yesterday by 4 pm, that would have represented a massive admission that they fucked up in 2020 when they drafted him at 21 when burgeoning superstar DK Metcalf was available.
General manager Howie Roseman and coach Nick Sirianni were asked yesterday to explain how Reagor earned his spot — and whether his guaranteed contract helped keep him on the team.
“I think when you look at Jalen, one of the things that one of our scouts said to me today is he was one of the only guys that practiced every day,” Roseman told reporters.
“The guy brought it every day. He worked on his craft. He had a great attitude, great energy. Obviously, he’s a talented guy. He’s 23 years old. We’re going to do whatever we think is in the best interest of the team, and we felt like there was no doubt in our mind that he deserved a role on this team.”
Sirianni was asked to share his thoughts from a football standpoint.
“I just felt like he made plays this summer, and it started right from the beginning, from day one of training camp, and it continued on throughout the practices that we had,” Sirianni said. “You could definitely see the explosion that — he’s never lost that, right? He’s had this explosion in his body, and he uses it to separate from the defense. I just thought he had a good camp and he made plays and he was more consistent this year throughout training camp.”
Reagor had 31 catches for 396 yards and a touchdown as a rookie. Last year, he caught 33 passes for 299 yards and two scores.
