Why Jalen Reagor is One of the Top NFL Draft Receivers

Jalen Reagor NFL Draft

Leaving high school Jalen Reagor wasn’t a top 200 recruit but that didn’t mean that the elite teams didn’t want him as he had scholarship offers from Alabama, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Texas, Texas A&M and Oregon. Reagor chose to stay in the state of Texas and join the Horned Frogs were he made an immediate impact winning Big 12 Freshman of the Year. Reagor took the next step as a sophomore with 1,061 yards and 9 touchdowns as TCU’s top weapon. Now entering his junior season Jalen Reagor is emerging as one of the top 2020 NFL Draft receiver prospects in a loaded group. Here we’ll look a three reasons why.

Speed and Quickness

The biggest strength of Jalen Reagor’s game is his athletic ability that allows him to get open. Not only does Reagor have the speed to get deep but he has the quickness to go in and out of breaks helping him get open underneath. Because Reagor has the deep speed to run past defensive backs they often have to give him a cushion which Reagor can eat up fast but is also able to use that threat to set up his underneath routes either breaking back or make quick moves inside or out to get open. Even against press coverage Reagor uses his quickness to fake one way and then burst away beating the press without much of an effort.

Catching

Whether it is a perfectly thrown ball making a hands catch or plucking the ball out of the air he’s able to make the routine catches. Because the TCU quarterbacks struggled with accurately throwing the ball we get to see Jalen Reagor show off his catching radius and soft hands. Often times on routes where he is running horizontal he has to reach behind to make catch adjust and even made a shoelace catch that was behind him. You don’t really see Reagor go up to make a contested catch but if you put it close to his body, he’s going to catch it.

Body Control

A big reason why Jalen Reagor is able to make such tough catches is he has the body control that allows him to make those adjustments and to be in the position to make the catch. His ability to turn his body while moving at full speed or turn back and leap up to make catches show that he doesn’t need a perfect ball to make an impact. Against West Virginia he even was able to make a catch behind him and spin off of the defender in mid air to come down and keep running.

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