New Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jalen Reagor, their No. 21 overall selection in last night's NFL Draft (round one), played three seasons for Gary Patterson at TCU.
Patterson joined Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie on Friday's 94WIP Midday Show to discuss Reagor, who caught just 43 balls for 611 yards and five touchdowns last season compared to his 72 / 1,061 / 9 junior season.
"As he did in the combine, he dropped some balls this year," Patterson admitted. "His production, we should have used him a lot more. We probably hurt him in his senior year. When he's into it, he has good hands. This year we played with a true freshman and so it was hard to evaluate, because I think we hurt his potential because of the rest of the offense. We underachieved there. We've gotta play better and I think that hurt Jalen."
Patterson was specifically asked about Reagor improving his route running and mentioned that he can squat 600 pounds and bench 400 pounds.
"I think that's a positive as far as being able how to stem people, how to do things, but he's a guy that processes pretty well," Patterson said. "He's gonna ask good questions. If they'll teach him, he'll learn really quick. That's the important thing. He's strong enough too. He's probably around a 600 pound squatter, probably a 400 pound bencher. So he's gonna be a physical guy that can get off the line of scrimmage as a rookie. That first helps you where the physicality of the game is not much where you gotta get up to that level."
Reagor's NFL combine 40-yard dash was surprisingly high, at 4.47, but Patterson says that's because he gained some weight.
"He was about seven or eight pounds heavier than when he played at the end of the season," Patterson said of Reagor. "When he came back and he ran his own day, I saw some of the watches, they were in the 4.3's and maybe even the high 4.2.
And what about the Reagor the person?
"He's pretty quiet," said Patterson. "I would tell him to stay off Twitter. My advice to all of our guys to go and keep your mouth shut and play. We all know the historical background of Philly fans and they like a toughness to their teams, and he needs to be that guy."