Eagles Picking Their Spots for Jalen Reagor in Return Game, and Here's Why

Special team coach Dave Fipp said the rookie has plenty on his plate, while WR coach Aaron Moorehead chimed in on Reagor earlier this month

Jalen Reagor housed a punt return 73 yards against the Packers. In the next game, he never got a chance to try again. Now, there are very good reasons for why the rookie got shut out of the return game against the Saints on Sunday.

First, New Orleans never punted in the second half.

Second, Reagor got dinged up in the first quarter and was seen on the sidelines pacing back and forth at one point without his helmet while the offense was on the field.

“We want the ball in Jalen’s hand when we think he can make an impact in the game,” said special team coordinator Dave Fipp. “When we can set up a play that’s going to take advantage of his skill set. Unfortunately, that’s not every punt. We try to put him in those situations where he can make the biggest impact for our football team, but also not give him all the load and stress of all the other stuff that goes along with the position because right now, he’s got a lot on his plate.”

But there’s more to it that than when it comes to Reagor.

Yes, he returned punts in college at TCU, but the NFL is a different level, and Fipp is right, Reagor’s plate is overflowing at the moment and he is still adjusting to that

His offensive role grows each week, both running the ball, where he has three carries for 36 yards, and receiving, where he is averaging 13.7 yards per catch on 22 receptions in eight games, with 322 yards and a TD.

He also missed five games.

Receiver coach Aaron Moorehead said earlier this month that he noticed Reagor feeling a little pressure of being a first-round pick earlier this year.

“You could feel it a little bit on him,” said Moorehead. “The thing about Jalen, he wants to be so good, not for Jalen, but he wants to be so good for Philadelphia, he wants to be so good for our organization here and he puts a lot of pressure on himself; I love that about him.”

Moorehead said that he believes the five-game absence may have helped Reagor from a mental standpoint.

“He was able to see things from a different perspective he was able to sit back and watch and see a few things. Sometimes when you’re in you don’t see it all and when you’re out you have a chance to see the big picture. I think that really helped him.”

With that in mind, Reagor will continue to work in a rotation with Greg Ward, who got all four chances against the Saints.

On one, Ward made a nice play, selling the catch near the 10-yard line then running up the field, allowing the ball to bounce inside the 10 for a touchback.

On another, he let the ball bounce at the 20 when he looked to be in position to make a catch, allowing the ball to roll to the 4-yard line with just over two minutes to go in the half. Miles Sanders took some of the sting away by running for an 82-yard touchdown a few plays later.

“I’m sure he would like to catch every single football but if he doesn’t feel comfortable catching it then the last thing we want him to do is to put himself at risk of putting the ball down on the ground, especially on that part of the field,” said Fipp.

Evidently, catching the ball is still a bit of an issue with Reagor as far as punt returns go. Even on the punt return TD in Green Bay, he dropped the ball first before setting sail for the end zone.

“There are some situations we feel like Greg just handles better and that we try to take some of the load off Jalen and not put every punt on him,” said Fipp.

There is more to punt returning than meets the eye, according to the ST coordinator, who said he believes some people think it’s just going back and fielding the ball.

“There’s a lot more to it than that: where their players are, where our players are, what return we have called, which direction the ball is kicked, the wind, where you are on the field,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into it. All of those guys who go back there take time to develop and not only that but also just catching the ball.

“When you look back in history, I think (former NFL WR Devin) Hester put like five to eight of them on the ground his rookie year. So, there’s some of that with those guys…

“I think as (Reagor) develops, and the game slows down for him in the National Football League - I think when you come into this league, just like when you go into college for the first time coming from high school, it’s like drinking out of a firehose. I mean everything is happening really fast. I think what happens is over time the game starts to slow down for you.”

When it does, the expectation is that Reagor will indeed become the full-time punt returner, but maybe not until next year.

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