'Everything is Going to Go Great' for Jalen Reagor
PHILADELPHIA - Jalen Hurts calls it "rat poison" and something that needs to be avoided, but Jalen Reagor hasn't always found it easy to find the shutoff valve when it comes to outside noise.
Reagor, the Eagles' 2020 first-round pick coming off a disappointing rookie season with injuries tied to ineffectiveness, spoke for the first time in 2021 after an OTA practice Tuesday and noted he needs to do a better job both on and off the field.
“People can say whatever they want to say, but if you respond, you’re wrong,” Reagor claimed when addressing some difficulties when it comes to wrangling back and forth on social media. “It is what it is. I know what I can do better."
The easiest way for Reagor to vanquish his online critics is to simply play well and up to the talent level that turned him into the 21st overall pick in 2020. For now, he's using the haters as fuel.
"That’s why I attacked this offseason the way I did," he said. "We’ll see if everybody has the same energy after this season.”
Still just 22, Reagor is a work in progress when it comes to trolling and perhaps maturity will solve the issue moving forward.
“Honestly, you’re just going to see a whole lot of improvement,” he insisted. “That’s all I can say. Incline.”
Jalen Reagor
James McKeith/SI.com Eagle Maven
Helping Reagor is Hurts, also a second-year player but one who seems to be wise beyond his years and excels at the extra things like getting his teammates together for offseason work away from the facility.
"The one thing I see with [Hurts]... he does a lot of stuff with intent and then he has fun with it," Reagor told SI.com's Eagle Maven. "Having that morale and having his [personality], I feel like everybody is going to gravitate to him. He's a natural-born leader. Everything is just looking like success [with Hurts]."
More of a manufactured-touch player coming into the NFL, Regaor is intent on trying to sharpen his own game and turn into a more complete receiver.
“Being a complete wide receiver, mastering the things that take no talent and then fine-tuning the details, doing everything with intent and just knowing that I’m blessed as well," Reagor said when asked about what he needs to improve on.
Reagor may have slipped up a bit by admitting that Nick Sirianni and the new coaching staff wants to use him in the slot a lot more before the second-year WR reversed course and trumpeted the party line which claims the WRs as a whole are going to be interchangeable.
“The only thing that’s pretty much different this year is just me being in the slot,” Reagor said.
Last season Regsor played only 22 percent of his snaps inside, according to ProFootballFocus.com.
“Honestly, I think it’s just going to make the whole team better - not necessarily me being in the slot - but every receiver being interchangeable," he said.
The main default setting at WR for the Eagles is shaping up to be 2021 first-round pick DeVonta Smith at Z, Reagor in the slot, and Travis Fulgham as the X with others pushing for work.
The first step for Reagor is a simple one - staying healthy.
“I really didn’t get hurt until I got into the NFL,” he said. “The little injury bug I had like I said, you gotta go through something to be somebody. I feel like that was just testing my character. I feel like me being healthy, the best ability is availability. As long as I’m healthy, I feel like everything is going to go great.”
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
