Jalen Royals

Royals is a fluid mover. He makes everything look easy, from his in-route adjustments to his accelerating and deceleration. His RAC ability jumps out immediately from his film. As soon as he has the ball in his hands, he is off to the races. Royals gets up to top speed almost instantly. His physical strength is easy to see in a number of ways. Royals is a load to bring down. He had 17 missed tackles forced last year with only 55 receptions. He cuts through defenders as a runner, effortlessly shedding tacklers. He plays well through contact with many routes, but he does have some issues with physical corners. Royals has a good understanding of using his physical skills to his benefit, especially on slants and other in-breaking routes. With go routes, he didn't flash a deep release package tool belt attempting to run by corners. He has the speed to do so, but he'll need more than that in the NFL, though. In Mobile at the Reese's Senior Bowl, Royals was less than 100% (dealing with a soft tissue injury). While his speed wasn't fully on display, his release package and route running were against better competition. He consistently won his reps during the week with route running nuance and his footwork. It was fantastic to see him do this at less than 100% and strong corners. Royals' body control and hands are impressive. Utah State's quarterback play was not stellar, so he had to adjust to plenty of passes outside of his frame. He aggressively attacks the ball away from his frame. He did have a drop rate of 5.2% or higher in each of his final two seasons in college, but I'm not overly concerned about it. Plenty of his drops were of the concentration variety or adjusting to difficult ball placement.

Jalen Royals is a terrific route runner who's lethal after the catch. He was wildly productive at Utah State, with 126 catches for 1,914 yards and 21 TDs over 20 games in his final two college seasons.