The Vikings released former Eagles 1st-round pick Jalen Reagor Wednesday, which won’t be a surprise to anybody following his career.
But the real significance of the move is that it means the conditional draft pick the Eagles received from the Vikings when they shipped Reagor to Minnesota a year ago this week won’t convert from a 5th-round pick to a 4th-round pick.
The Eagles traded Reagor in exchange for a 7th-round pick in 2023 and a conditional 5th-round pick in 2024. The 7th-round pick – No. 219 overall – wound up going to the Lions as part of the D’Andre Swift trade.
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According to terms of the trade, that 5th-round pick would convert to a 4th-round pick if Reagor met specific performance benchmarks. Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice reported in February that the pick would become a 4th-rounder if Reagor had 40 receptions, 500 receiving yards or five touchdowns for the Vikings in either 2022 or 2023.
Reagor caught eight passes for 104 yards with one touchdown in 2022.
So unless Reagor re-signs with the Vikings and all of a sudden becomes a functional wide receiver, the Eagles will have received a 5th-round pick and 7th-round pick for a player they drafted 21st overall just two years earlier.
Reagor caught 64 passes for 695 yards and three TDs in two years with the Eagles. He had a 55-yard catch from Carson Wentz just 10 minutes into his first NFL game and that remains the longest reception of his career (by 16 yards). He’s never had more than 57 yards in a game.
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Of 113 wide receivers in NFL history drafted in the first round who played in at least 40 games in their first three years, only four had fewer yards than Reagor’s 799 during those first three seasons (Bobby Crespino in the 1960s, Barry Smith and Randy Burke in the 1970s and Laquon Treadwell from 2016 through 2018).
As it stands now, the Eagles have six picks in the 2024 draft, although that number will increase significantly with compensatory picks from a net loss of free agents this past spring.
They currently have their own 1st- and 2nd-round picks, the Saints’ 2nd-round pick as a result of the massive trade before the 2022 draft, 5th-round picks from the Vikings for Reagor and the Buccaneers as part of a draft-day trade this past spring and a 6th-round pick from the Titans thanks to the Ugo Amadi trade, of all things.
They traded their 3rd-rounder to the Texans for the pick they used to draft Kelee Ringo and their 4th-round pick to the Bears to move up a spot and draft Jalen Carter. Their 5th-round pick next year went to the Cards as part of compensation for the Cards tampering with Jonathan Gannon, and the 7th-rounder went to Tennessee as part of the Amadi trade.
According to Over The Cap's compensatory pick projections, the Eagles should receive a 3rd-round pick and three more picks in the fifth or sixth rounds for net free agency losses.