As NFL teams go about finalizing their rosters for Week 1 of the 2022 regular season, players around the league are available not only through free agency but via trade as well. Valuable players who are no longer in one team's plans can be incredibly helpful for another. This is the situation the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles found themselves in a day after they finalized their 53-man rosters. That’s when an Eagles, Vikings deal materialized that made sense for both clubs, and the Jalen Reagor trade went down.
In the Jalen Reagor trade, the Vikings are sending a seventh-round pick and a conditional fourth/fifth-round pick to the Eagles for the wide receiver, who was the No. 21 overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft. Here are the grades for both sides of this Vikings, Eagles trade.
Vikings trade grade
The Vikings got some terrible news following the final preseason game vs. the Denver Broncos. Wide receiver Bisi Johnson tore his ACL and will again miss the entire season. The pass-catcher who showed so much promise in his 2019 rookie season is now out for the second consecutive year with an injury to the opposite ACL he tore last year.
That injury left the Vikings thin at WR. After Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and K.J. Osborn, the team’s fourth wideout was sixth-round pick Jalen Nailor out of Michigan State.
The Jalen Reagor trade now gives the Vikings a proven NFL pass-catcher at WR4. Yes, Reagor has disappointed in his first two seasons. The first-rounder only has 64 catches for 695 yards and three touchdowns in his career. Those numbers pale in comparison to 2020 and 2021 first-round receivers like Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, CeeDee Lamb, and his new teammate, Jefferson.
That’s all true, and plenty of it is Reagor’s fault, but his performance isn’t entirely on him. So far in his career, the former TCU WR has caught passes from Carson Wentz, Jalen Hurts, and Gardner Minshew. That’s not exactly Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and John Elway.
Kirk Cousins, flaws and all, will be — by far — the best QB Reagor has ever worked with in the NFL. Giving up a seventh and a fourth (if he plays well) isn’t nothing, but it is well worth it if the former first-rounder can start reaching his potential.
The Vikings' hope has to be that, without the pressure of developing into a go-to guy right away, Reagor will be able to develop. Plus, he’ll be an excelltn punt returner for the team either way. All in all, the Jalen Reagor trade is a low-risk, high-reward deal for the Vikings.
GRADE: A
Eagles trade grade
On the other side of this Eagles, Vikings trade, Philadelphia also did quite well. With burgeoning young stars DeVonta Smith and Quez Watkins already in the mix and A.J. Brown and Zach Pascal coming over in the offseason, the Jalen Reagor trade made sense because he was the odd man out of the WR rotation.
The fact is, the Eagles made a great deal in a vacuum, getting two mid-to-late-round draft picks for a player who the team probably would have cut otherwise.
That said, you can’t grade the trade solely in a vacuum.
The Eagles franchise still spent a first-round pick on Reagor ahead of Justin Jefferson, Brandon Aiyuk, Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman Jr., K.J. Hamler, Chase Claypool, Devin Duvernay, Gabriel Davis, Darnell Mooney, K.J. Osborn, and Watkins. Then, the coaching staff's (both Doug Peterson and Nick Siriani’s) failed to develop him.
Because of that, the team can’t get an A grade for the Jalen Reagor trade. The Eagles did get something for what could have been nothing, though, so that means they did relatively well, considering the circumstances.
GRADE: B+
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