PRO 2025 Rookie Spotlight: Jalen Royals, WR Utah State
Rookie Spotlight: Jalen Royals, WR Utah State
Height: 6-0
Weight: 205
Hands:
Arm:
2025 Age: 21 – (02/18/03)
NFL Play-Style Comparison: Victor Cruz, Anthony Miller, Jayden Reed
Draft Grade: 2nd Round
Projected 40: 4.46
Breakout Age: 19 (RS Freshman)
Offensive Market Share Metrics (Final Season)
Receptions: 19%
Receiving Yards: 26%
Receiving TDs: 21%
High School: Hillgrove HS (Powder Springs, Georgia)
As a high school prospect: Class of 2021; 0-star – Zero Offers
Honors: 2023 First-team All-MWC, 2024 Second-team All-MWC
College Attended: Georgia Military Junior College, Utah State
Pros
– Finished career with three consecutive 150+ yard games (Boise State, UNLV, New Mexico)
– The ideal build for a modern NFL Wide Receiver (6-0 205-ish), I like to call it “the archetype” – (Chase, OBJ, DJ Moore, Jefferson, Cooper, Watkins, Diggs, Nabers, JSN, etc)
– Finished with 436 yards after contact (23rd in College Football), played just 7 games after dealing with a season-ending ankle injury.
– Great hands in all areas
– Elite yards/route run (3.00) in final season
– Stretches defenses vertically with surprising speed
– Tempo route runner with the ability to change direction as desired
Cons
– Poor QB play limited his true top-end potential
– Contested catch-ability plummeted in 2024 from 74% down to 38% in 2023
– Only 20 career games played, however, his best career game came against the best opponent (Boise State: 211 yards, 2 touchdowns)
– Average depth of target dropped below 10 in 2024, from 13.2 in 2023
Highlight/Film
Scouting Notes:
During Jalen Royal’s first season at Utah State, he didn’t catch a single football, but it never slowed him down, from zero offers in high school through the junior college ranks and onto the scene in Logan, Utah. Royals saw his ‘breakout’ game come against Connecticut on September 30th, 2023 where he caught 7 balls for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns and he hasn’t looked back since. It’s hard to watch Jalen Royals and not be reminded of former Senior Bowl standouts like Jayden Reed and Deebo Samuel, however, Royals was not utilized in the running game at all at Utah State and as far as pure dynamism he falls short of those two. I fell on a Victor Cruz comparison not because he is a smaller school guy like Cruz, but because of his body type and dynamic-ability after the catch and within routes. I’m a massive fan of Royals and see him as an early 2nd-round pick, in prior years we have watched players like Skyy Moore, Malachi Corley, Kadarius Toney, and Velus Jones show similar traits, and be drafted in the first 3 rounds, but flame out early in their careers.
Through poor quarterback play and an ankle injury, Royals was on his way to a sensational season, dominating in the final three games of his career (30-554-4). His dropoff in contested catch success is a direct correlation to the bad quarterback play, if Royals lands with any competent quarterback in the NFL I really do see a world where Royals succeeds EARLY in his career with abilities to start as the No. 2 option in year 1. He doesn’t have a ton of game reps, with just 1.5 seasons played at the G5 level, he is far from the most accomplished, despite nearly 2,000 career receiving yards. From a dynasty perspective, he’s very off-the-radar right now, but that may likely change through the Senior Bowl and draft process. In early drafts, he presents excellent value in the late rounds when league mates are taking shots on lower-upside fliers.
