PHILADELPHIA — After just two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, wide receiver Jalen Reagor’s time in the City of Brotherly Love is over.
The Eagles agreed to a trade with the Minnesota Vikings on Wednesday, sending Reagor to the midwest for a 2023 seventh round pick, and a conditional 2024 fourth round pick.
Reagor was the Eagles' first round selection in the 2020 NFL Draft, but struggled from the start, never flashing the explosive talent he showed at TCU.
In two seasons as a full time starter, Reagor caught just 64 passes for 695 yards and 3 touchdowns.
What went so wrong so fast for a player Philadelphia once saw as a better prospect than the likes of Justin Jefferson, Tee Higgins, and Brandon Aiyuk?
Here are three key takeaways following the trade:
Reagor just never showed he had 'IT'
Reagor was a fast, explosive deep threat with the TCU Horned Frogs.
He could go up and make contested catches, and could make people miss in the open field. Reagor was a playmaker that many teams saw as a Day 1 selection. This wasn’t a Marcus Smith kind of pick where only the Eagles saw Reagor in that light.
While that was the case in college, Reagor looked like a completely different player at the NFL level. He never showed the ability to separate from pro level cornerbacks with his speed or route running.
In the open field, Reagor never showed the speed that was the main trait Philadelphia had tunnel vision for when they selected.
He dropped passes, he fumbled punts, he didn’t always seem to give 100% effort, and he pushed back at fans instead of taking accountability.
There weren’t many signs of that TCU player ever coming back. To potentially receive two draft picks from the Vikings for Reagor looks like a steal.
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A Nelson Agholor-like comeback was not likely
The glass half-full, optimistic fans out there would often point to Nelson Agholor’s Year 3 career revival back in 2017 to say that maybe Reagor could still make it work with the Eagles.
Like Reagor, Agholor looked historically bad in his first two seasons after being a first round pick.
Agholor had just 59 receptions for 648 yards and three touchdowns in 2015 and 2016. That was fewer receptions, yards, and the same amount of touchdowns as Reagor through two seasons.
Agholor went on to be the Eagles best deep threat in their Super Bowl season, finishing with 768 yards and eight touchdowns, while capping things off with a team-high nine receptions in Philadelphia’s Super Bowl LVII victory.
That was certainly an outlier and not a consistent trend to point to. In fact, of the 12 receivers selected in the first round since 2012 that finished each of their first two seasons under 500 receiving yards, only Agholor went on to have one or multiple seasons of 700 yards or more.
This scenario playing out again wasn’t likely, and the Eagles knew it.
That is why they made sure to build around DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, and Quez Watkins.
How fast things change in the NFL
The NFL should stand for “not for long.”
The way things rapidly change in this league is incredible to witness.
Just two years ago, Reagor was supposed to be the face of a younger, faster Eagles offense. He was supposed to be the future top receiver for former franchise quarterback Carson Wentz, who never had a true deep threat for more than a few games in five seasons.
The connection between these two couldn’t have started more perfectly.
In their 2020 Week 1 matchup against Washington, Reagor burned former Eagles defensive back Ronald Darby on a double move (sound familiar?) and Wentz hit him 55 yards down the field for his first career reception.
It never got better.
Wentz collapsed that game and the rest of the season. Reagor collapsed too. Now, both are gone.
While it is for the better, it is still surreal to see how fast things have changed for the Eagles in such a major way.