Shoulder injury to delay Jalen Reagor’s NFL debut

By Travis M. Smith | KBEC Sports

Waxahachie football faithful will have to hold a little water before cheering Jalen Reagor toward an NFL end zone.

Reagor, a 2017 Waxahachie graduate and 2020 first-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, sustained a shoulder injury Sunday that will force the rookie to miss the season opener.

The blow also officially ends Reagor’s first NFL training camp, which Eagles’ head coach Doug Pederson described as impressive during a session with media on Tuesday.

“I’ve been really, really impressed with Jalen, his work ethic, picking up our system,” Pederson told reporters. “One of the things I guess from our virtual meetings that we’ve had with him in the off-season to now to training camp, is how well he carried the information over, how well he retained the information, right? Then his competitive drive in practice has showed up. His explosiveness, his speed. He has really good hands.”

“Things that were hard to see on his college tape, but we knew as a receiver that he could do. He came in and, gosh, he wants to learn. He’s a sponge. He’s learning from Alshon [Jeffery], from DeSean [Jackson], he’s learning from Carson [Wentz].”

According to multiple reports, Reagor exited the Eagles’ practice field with a dislocated shoulder early Sunday. The injury was sustained during the team portion of practice and, according to multiple reports, occurred when Reagor attempted to tackle a defender following a Jalen Hurts interception. Hurts, a rookie quarterback from the University of Oklahoma, was running the first-team offense while Carson Wentz rested a lower-body injury.

An MRI has since confirmed that Reagor will not require surgery and is officially labeled as “week-to-week” and could miss 4-6 weeks, though team officials have not verified that timetable.

The NFL season is set to begin Thursday, Sept. 10, while the Eagles will open Sunday, Sept. 13 on the road against the Washington Football Team. Philadelphia will then return home to face the Los Angeles Rams the following Sunday at noon.

If the reports of Reagor missing between a month and a month a half are confirmed, it means the wideout could return as early as week three against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, Sept. 27 or Saturday night, Oct. 4 against the San Francisco 49ers on primetime.

A six-week diagnosis would hold Reagor’s professional debut off until either week five against the Pittsburgh Steelers (Oct. 11) or week six at home against the Baltimore Ravens (Oct. 18).

Whatever the scenario, the Pederson and the Eagles eagerly await Reagor’s return to the field.

“I’m excited to see obviously this year when we get him back, then obviously the remainder of this year and see how his career really unfolds working with Carson down the road,” Pederson said.

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Travis M. Smith, @Travis5mith

tsmith@kbec.com