Jalen Reagor Building Roster Run On New England Patriots’ Scout Team

The final spot on the New England Patriots’ initial practice squad went to a wide receiver who had never been on one before.

Jalen Reagor officially signed as the calendar turned to September after being waived by the Minnesota Vikings at the NFL’s 53-man roster deadline. The No. 21 overall pick in the 2020 draft has remained there since then.

But recent momentum points toward that changing for an organization that stands at 2-5.

“Jalen’s come in, been a really good scout-team player for us,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said during his Wednesday press conference. “We’ve played against a lot of top receivers, and he’s gotten a lot of a good opportunities with some of the routes that those guys run to kind of be featured a little bit on some of the scout-team plays. He’s earned some playing time, which has come from his practice time, practice performance.

“He’s picking up the offense, and we’ll see how it goes. He’s got good talent, good guy to work with, glad we have him.”

Reagor, 24, served as a standard elevation but did not play in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins. He has since served as a standard elevation in both Week 6 and Week 7, seeing his workload climb from 14 offensive snaps against the Las Vegas Raiders to 25 offensive snaps against the Buffalo Bills.

Over Tyquan Thornton, the former TCU standout got the call as the fourth wide receiver last Sunday behind starters Kendrick Bourne, DeVante Parker and rookie Demario Douglas. In the 29-25 AFC East upset at Gillette Stadium, he was involved in run-blocking work on the perimeter and caught his first target of the fall on a slant route after halftime.

It turned into a first down and a pickup of 11 yards on an afternoon that saw JuJu Smith-Schuster and Kayshon Boutte go from questionable to inactive.

“He’s great. Jalen, seen him in college, seen his college tape,” Patriots quarterback Mac Jones told reporters on Wednesday. “He’s a very fast football player. He does a great job learning the playbook quickly and one of the other things is in practice just how impressive he is in getting open, finishing and catching the ball. So, I really have a lot of respect for him and how he works. Hopefully, he can continue to grow.”

Under league rules, three elevations from the practice squad are permitted per regular season. Reagor, who reverted to the group of 16 on Monday, is out of his. The next appearance would require a promotion to the active roster, where the Patriots recently created an opening by waiving undrafted quarterback-slash-receiver Malik Cunningham.

Since becoming the fourth wideout prospect taken in his draft class, the 5-foot-11, 197-pound Reagor has appeared in 47 games. He started 24 across a pair of campaigns with the Philadelphia Eagles. The stay included 64 catches for 695 yards and three touchdowns, 14 carries for 58 yards, as well as a punt return that stretched 73 yards to the end zone.

But drops and fumbles arrived along the way before Reagor was traded ahead of 2022 in a swap of late-round capital. From there, his lone season in Minnesota featured just 82 downs on offense and 62 downs on special teams. While recording 129 yards and one touchdown through a dozen touches from scrimmage, he returned 26 punts for 167 yards.

“Like I said, just really good practice habits,” added Jones. “He definitely shows speed, route-running ability, knowing the plays, all that stuff. He just needs to continue to do that and be out there.”

Another chance could come at Hard Rock Stadium. The Dolphins host Sunday’s 1 p.m. ET divisional kickoff.