Eagles film review: Is Jalen Reagor as bad as his numbers indicate?

Why does it seem like Jalen Reagor is struggling again?

In the middle of the 2020 season, I broke down the tape on Jalen Reagor versus the Cleveland Browns. There were plenty of missed opportunities in which he presented himself as an option to his quarterback but did not get the ball. While the Philadelphia Eagles rookie wideout wasn’t perfect, he had a lot of impressive tape from his rookie season.

The numbers weren’t what you’d expect from a first-round pick, but he was still on pace for over 500 yards if he had played a full season and that likely would’ve increased with better playcalling and quarterback play.

One year later, he is averaging a little bit less than half of the yards per game he averaged in his rookie year. Not to mention, most of his work has come in garbage time. He is still struggling to fight through contact and swipe the cornerback’s hands away. That often leads to the corner leaning into his hip and chest and gaining leverage on the sideline. Against the San Francisco 49ers, it cost him a touchdown.

At the same time, some of the same issues persist from last year that we thought would change with Sirianni. Those issues include the routes Reagor is being asked to run, the lack of involvement due to both the gameplan and quarterback, and the lack of jet sweeps, end-arounds, reverses, and orbit motions that are easy to complain about every week.

The offensive line hasn’t been as big of an issue this year but there are still some untimely miscues. Hurts’ mechanics especially his footwork have led to some inaccurate throws.

To clarify, the game plan in recent weeks has been great and the Eagles took advantage of matchups especially in the trenches with 13 personnel. However, in terms of the whole season, Reagor could have had more opportunities carved out to get him the ball in space with how pass-heavy the Eagles got.

It’s not all on the coaches and team around Reagor but it’s also not all on him. Let’s take a look at some specific examples from last week’s game: