NFL Analysis
10/28/24
6 min read
Jalen Royals 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Utah State Aggies WR
Height: 6000 (unofficial)
Weight: 200 (unofficial)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: Mike Wallace
Scouting Overview
Utah State wide receiver Jalen Royals is a dynamic pass catcher who is making the most of his opportunities as a late bloomer. A natural athlete who went underrecruited out of high school, Royals has developed into a featured receiver during his final two seasons with the Aggies.
Royals showcases plucky hands and vertical receiving ability and complements his explosiveness with the ability to run underneath routes that take advantage of the cushion he’s often given. There’s inside and outside flexibility here, giving Royals pathways to playing time in a multitude of ways for a variety of offenses.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Dynamic athletic profile and fluid movement skills
- Open field speed to convert space into explosive plays and break pursuit angles
- Good body control adjustments to adjust his frame to footballs off his numbers
Negatives
- Does not play the ball through contact at the catch point with consistency
- Has room for growth against press coverage and with his release packages
- Spatial discipline with outside releases on the vertical plane can be too compressed to the boundary
Background
Jalen Royals is from Powder Springs, GA, and has taken a round-about path to Utah State and the doorstep of the NFL. Royals was a multi-sport athlete at Hillsgrove HS, playing football and basketball and participating in track & field. Royals was an All-State high jumper and a successful basketball player, participating in AAU tournaments, leaving him modestly productive and under-recruited coming out of high school.
Royals, self-admittedly, also had some room for growth in the classroom with his grades, contributing to his lack of offers. He enrolled at Georgia Military College for his freshman season in 2021. He posted seven receptions for 92 yards and two scores in 11 games.
Yet, Royals received an invitation to Utah State’s Elites Camp and promptly blew the staff out of the water with his workout after making a 1,500+ mile trip with his father, DeAndre. Royals reportedly ran 4.32(u) in the 40-yard dash and jumped 10 feet, 10 inches in the broad jump that day. Utah State offered him a week later.
Royals’ first season at Utah State was a quiet one. He played in 12 contests but was notably named academic All-MWC. Then came the breakout campaign, where he posted the program’s 13th individual 1,000-yard season in 2023 and broke the program record for touchdown receptions in a single season (15).
Tale of THe Tape
Royals is a fascinating prospect who offers tons of natural ability for the wide receiver position. This is a ceiling play for teams that have confidence in their ability to draft and develop — as Royals still feels like he’s just scratching the surface of what he’s physically capable of despite two productive seasons with the Aggies.
Royals is dynamic in a hard-to-miss kind of way. This includes his second gear in the open field, how he plays through his breaks, or how he puts wiggle on a defensive back in the open field. The dynamic flexibility of his lower half will get you excited, as it allows him to carry momentum and speed through steep angles while simultaneously offering false keys to defenders. He runs through some of his breaks (and tackle challenges) like a point guard driving the paint — fitting for his background as an AAU basketball player.
Royals shows good hands that can pluck the football at or above his eyes, and he can play a back shoulder ball and open himself back up against his momentum without detriment. But his hands and ball skills, in general, need more consistency when he’s playing through contact at the catch point.
Royals graded well in contested catch situations in 2023, but this has been a sore spot in 2024. As a result, defenders have crowded his frame and disrupted catches.
He has seen his opportunities expand somewhat this past year, as Utah State has embraced more quick work to the perimeter to get the ball into his hands quickly underneath. When Royals can take these throws in stride, he will find his gear quickly and convert into run-after-catch mode. These touches have come in the form of slants, shallow ins, and perimeter screens.
Moving forward, Royals will need to add some diversification to his game. He’s played an overwhelming majority of his reps from the left side of the formation, and Utah State’s offense affords some wide splits outside the numbers that he simply won’t see in the NFL. The way this changes his spacing and access off of the line gives him some reps that you can’t do much with for his evaluation.
You do worry about what those elements mean for some of his habits as a receiver. Royals can absolutely blaze and be an effective vertical receiver, given how well he runs. But his tight splits to the sideline have led him to get squeezed too far off the red line when running vertical routes — leaving him pinned to the sideline and with no window for his quarterback to drop the football into. The end result is some reps in which he simply has no room to work.
Royals has absolutely killed off coverage, showing an ability to run past defenders in space and work underneath routes effectively when he’s afforded room to work on the perimeter. However, against tight coverages, Royals will need to develop the efficiency and versatility of his releases at the line of scrimmage.
His basketball background should help him cross over cornerbacks at the line of scrimmage, but this is a matter of reps—he simply hasn’t seen much physicality through the contact window because of the spacing and his athleticism. I would expect that dynamic will change in the NFL, and how he acclimates will determine his ceiling as a player.
I do like him better as an outside receiver, but he’s shown the ability to play in the slot, and his athleticism can create problems with that much grass to attack. Still, the physicality of being a contributor in the run game is something he hasn’t shined at.
I also would like to see his ball tracking and catch point work stabilize when defenders are driving and squeezing his frame before giving him too much work in high-traffic areas.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Traditional Z-receiver to run routes on the vertical plane and create coverage lift. Can be a quality NFL starter.
Grade: 74.50/100.00, Third Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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