The Minnesota Vikings played well early on in their 24-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night. One of the reasons the second team saw success was the play of fourth-year wide receiver Jalen Reagor.
After struggling with the team last year, Reagor entered training camp firmly on the roster bubble. This is despite having a fully guaranteed $2.42 million salary in 2023.
In 2022, he muffed four punts and ran both of his routes so poorly against the Indianapolis Colts that they were both intercepted and one went for a touchdown.
This year in training camp, Reagor has looked improved and that carried over against the Seahawks. Here are six plays that show just that.
Shallow cross
When you run an underneath route, it can come with the punishment of a massive hit. Reagor runs a shallow cross on a flood concept that has a receiver on all three levels. He springs open, prompting the throw from quarterback Nick Mullens. Once he snagged the ball with his hands, Reagor got lit up by a defender. You want to see your receiver be able to take big hits like that and he delivered.
In route
The idea of this route combination is to put the shallow defenders in conflict, forcing them to choose between him and Brandon Powell. He runs a clean in-route and Powell gets the catch. These simple routes where he has the proper depth and crisp cuts are something we didn’t see from Reagor last year.
Dagger
A similar route to the in route posted above, Reagor runs a deeper route in a concept called Dagger. It combines a deep route from the slot with a deep in-route underneath and is used a lot by Kevin O’Connell. He runs this well with both the proper depth and hits the hole at the right time.
Blaze out
This route is one that was made famous by the likes of Stefon Diggs and Julio Jones. The blaze out is an out route with a small sell to the post. That gets the cornerback to flip his hips, allowing the receiver to win easily with leverage. Reagor sells deep before the post fake and gets the separation he needs. The key here is to keep the route flat after the break. Notice how he stays on the white line and doesn’t veer from it. That’s important when you get targeted.
Running through traffic
This is something that wide receivers have to deal with often when crossing the middle of the field. How you navigate that traffic separates the good from the great receivers. Reagor does a really nice job navigating through the Seahawks’ defense and stays right on the hip pocket of the linebacker to get to the desired spot. This is as good as it gets.
Smash
This is the best route we have seen Reagor run in a Vikings uniform. It’s a deep out route against QQH and he has everything working to his advantage. They run a smash concept with a shallow hitch route and Reagor running a corner over the top. He flattens the route off with the safety so far away and gets the catch with a perfect toe drag.
