The diagnosis on Jalen Reagor’s injured shoulder wasn’t good but it could have been a whole lot worse.
The 21st overall pick from April’s NFL draft will miss three to four weeks after an MRI revealed a small tear in his left shoulder. Reagor won’t need surgery, although he plans to get a second opinion, according to ESPN. The rookie receiver hurt his arm on Sunday when he extended it to make a tackle on Will Parks following an interception. That pass was from Jalen Hurts and not Carson Wentz who missed the session with a lower-body injury.
For Reagor, it’s a big blow for the prospective starting X wideout in the Eagles’ offense as he’ll be forced to miss Week 1. And maybe longer. He has been arguably the biggest standout at training camp where he has built a strong rapport with Wentz while showing off his explosiveness on special teams as a return man. The former star receiver at Texas Christian — 2,248 yards and 22 touchdowns in three years — was earning all kinds of kudos from his new quarterback in Philly.
“By no means am I saying this rookie is Julio Jones right now. Just the way that Jalen — his combination of speed and power — and just watching tape of Julio, I see some similarities with how they run routes,” Wentz said last week. “I think there’s a lot to learn from watching a guy like Julio that I really challenged him to kind of dissect his game and try to model it to some extent.”
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Reagor Oozing Confidence All Camp
Don’t worry about the 21-year-old being down on himself. Reagor has been brimming with confidence since he hit the field for his first padded practice almost two weeks ago. That confident swagger will only grow as he’s forced to sit home and rehab to start the year.
“I mean, confidence is me,” Reagor told reporters last week. “I walk around with confidence. I have confidence, that’s natural to me. And just to hear that for him [Wentz], for him to see that in me, it’s like, it just drives me to go harder, because I don’t want to be satisfied.”
Darius Slay has strong praise for #Eagles rookie Jalen Reagor. Been coaching him up after reps. But Slay wouldn’t compare him to anyone.
“He’s really his own self right now, got his own identity, he’s a great player, man. I just teach him what I know, to help him beat guys.”
Reagor has been leaning on the older guys in the locker room, star players like DeSean Jackson and Darius Slay, for guidance and constructive criticism. Everyone wants the rookie to succeed and they are pushing him hard to live up to expectations. It’s all good.
“The coaches, this organization, they believed in me, so I just try to just make the best of every day entering this building,” Reagor said. “Like I said, they believed in me and I’m here to do the job and I’m here to get the job done.”
Added Slay: “I told him he got some good wheels … I’m out here trying to make him a better player.”
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