Former Eagles WR Jalen Reagor still hasn’t learned a valuable lesson

If we could ever bring up Jalen Reagor and limit the conversations to his failures as a football player, we could forgive what we’ve seen. Sometimes, things won’t work out. The NFL Draft isn’t an exact science. The Philadelphia Eagles have landed good and bad players while fishing there, and sometimes, those players have been taken in Round 1.

Remember Danny Watkins? Yep, that was a bad idea. So was taking Mike Mamula over Warren Sapp. We still can’t explain what this organization was thinking while deciding to select Marcus Smith and Jerome McDougle.

Every year, the selection meeting is a crap shoot of sorts. You win some, and you lose some. Jalen Reagor’s name evokes different emotions though. He and the Birds have both moved on. He’s in Minnesota now, but for whatever reason, he’s never been able to understand something.

Whether he did so consciously or unconsciously, at times, he acted like he was entitled, as if the organization handled him unfairly. That seemingly hasn’t changed, even with this ‘change of scenery’ because you won’t believe what the former first-rounder said recently.

Jalen Reagor has ‘revenge on his mind’ ahead of the Eagles’ home opener.

Before we go any further, something needs to be stated. Jalen Reagor isn’t a bad person. It’s often best, when discussing someone, to study the opinions of people who know the subject personally or more intimately, and if you ever take the time to do so with Reagor, you’ll learn something.

If he was a former classmate of ours or a work buddy, he wouldn’t be a bad dude to hang out with. He doesn’t have a reputation for bashing teammates. Truthfully, the majority, both past and present, have nothing but great things to say about him. That matters in the grand scheme of things. Those are great traits.

Most Eagles fans have never had an issue with Jalen Hurts as a person. Unfortunately, our knowledge of him is mostly related to what he did while playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. Birds fans were dissatisfied with what he accomplished as a football player. Still, it’s in statements like one of his more recent ones where we find cause to mention that, sometimes, guys get angry when anyone else takes license to criticize them.

Here’s one that you may have missed. Reag seems to think he has some unfinished business with the Eagles organization. He told members of the Vikings media on Thursday that he has revenge on his mind with Monday Night Football and his return to the City of Brotherly Love on the horizon.

Take a look.

We haven’t reached Jalen Reagor for comment, but it seems as though he believes the Eagles have done something unsatisfactory in their handling of him, and this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened. Let’s take a brief walk down memory lane and review the facts.

Philadelphia selected Reagor with the 21st-overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft. They were rewarded with 64 receptions, 695 yards receiving, and three touchdowns during two seasons for placing that confidence in him. The lasting memory he left us with was a muffed punt in the Wild Card Round of the Eagles’ most recent postseason appearance. That doesn’t seem like a fair trade does it? In all honesty, his time in midnight green didn’t leave us with fond memories.

Sure, Danny Watkins failed as a football player. So did Jerome McDougle, but did you notice something? Mentioning their names doesn’t evoke the same emotion. Truthfully, Jalen Reagor may not irritate some of you either, but we can all agree that he’s a sensitive subject.

He was, at times, entitled, like the criticism he often heard was unfair. He never seemed to realize that something was lacking in his performance. He seemed angry at times and as if he felt attacked at other times, but it’s understandable why he’d feel that way.

It isn’t his fault that the Eagles kept sticking him in the starting lineup when it was evident that there was nothing there. It isn’t his fault that he was often handed playing time someone else deserved. We can, however, take issue with those meltdowns where he scrubbed his Instagram account of Eagles references and went on the offensive on social media, especially after this organization and many of the fans bent over backward to defend him.

That was a bit much, but some people can’t analyze themselves objectively. Some people always have to be the victim. Remember Carson Wentz?

At some point, the light bulb will come on, and Jalen Reagor will figure out that the city of Philadelphia doesn’t owe him anything. We believe that because, at his core, he’s a great guy, but in terms of talent and what he brings to the team he’s paid to play on, he leaves much to be desired.

Truthfully, the organization was much more patient than it needed to be, so if Reagor feels that he wants to stick it to the Eagles by showing them up in Week 2, so be it. There’s just one thing he needs to realize.

He has to get on the field first. He didn’t play an offensive snap in Week 1 versus the Green Bay Packers. He saw four snaps on special teams. The result of his day was one punt return for seven yards. Perhaps the Minnesota Vikings also feel he isn’t ready for primetime? It’s a question worth asking. We’ll see how things go in the Eagles’ home opener and revisit this subject post-game.