{"id":198844,"date":"2024-11-07T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=198844"},"modified":"2024-11-06T23:12:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T04:12:39","slug":"2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-jaylen-reed-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/11\/07\/2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-jaylen-reed-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NFL Draft Early Scouting Report: Jaylen Reed, Penn State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jaylen Reed has become one of Penn State\u2019s premier secondary defenders as they push for a playoff spot. His run-stopping abilities have been a major factor in their success and is a heat-seeking missile moving downhill. Here is a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/11\/06\/defensive-nfl-draft-risers-for-week-10-driven-by-overpoweringly-physical-defenders\/\" target=\"_self\">2025 NFL Draft<\/a> Early <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/11\/05\/2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-woody-marks-usc\/\" target=\"_self\">Scouting Report<\/a> and film analysis on him.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Overview, Film Analysis, and Early 2025 NFL Draft Scouting Report\u00a0 of Penn State DB Jaylen Reed<\/h2>\n<h3><b>Measurables:<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6\u20190\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">212 lbs<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Player Background:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jaylen Reed was originally a consensus <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/jaylen-reed-46081247\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Top-25 safety recruit in the class of 2021 and a Top-10 prospect in Michigan<\/a>. He appeared in eight total games his freshman season, starting none, and tallied six tackles. The departure of Jaquan Brisker allowed him to assume a larger role and he increased his tackles total to 31. The greater opportunity also led to him adding two tackles-for-loss and three pass breakups to his stat line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reed started every game he played in his junior campaign, manning the safety position on the Nittany Lions defense. He once again added to his previous tackle mark, bumping his solo tackle count to 32 and total tackle count to 46. He doubled his 2022 TFL amount with four and while he only accounted for one PBU, he notched his first two collegiate INTs. Reed was again the team\u2019s starting S entering 2024 and is en route to his best year by far.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Accolades:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All Big-10 Honorable Mention (2023)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AP Second Team Midseason All-American (2024)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reese\u2019s Senior Bowl Second Team Midseason All-American (2024)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Strengths\/Pros:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jaylen Reed is an excellent defender when he\u2019s able to work downhill and fully attack plays. He diagnoses run play\u2019s opening as they happen and can maneuver between multiple areas at the line of scrimmage. His instincts fully come to life when he keeps the play in front of him and in stays controlled. He understands leverage and angles enough to position himself well in those situations and shuts plays down. His late-play pursuit is impressive, and he accelerates and launches himself with precision to make plays on the ball carrier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His build isn\u2019t massive, but he showcases effective power when disrupting momentum-based runners. His ability to finish tackles when he has worse leverage also pops on tape. Positionally, he gives himself an edge by being serviceable at both deep safety and in the box. He keeps the play in front of him consistently as a deep safety and doesn\u2019t tend to get beat deep.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Weaknesses\/Cons:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a pure coverage defender, Reed often attempts to do more than he\u2019s capable of. He\u2019s very choppy in zone coverage and needs to become more comfortable to avoid getting faked. He routinely tries to cover more ground than he physically can and leaves more assignments untouched as a result. When playing closer to the line, he doesn\u2019t sink very well into his backpedal and isn\u2019t able to gain as much ground as he should.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He needs to trust underneath defenders more, routinely moving too much when passing off assignments. He looks indecisive a lot on blitzes and doesn\u2019t get pressure as quickly as he should. When working downhill, his one major flaw is trying to force it too much and losing his leverage. His anticipation of quarterbacks\u2019 angles and eyes also has room to improve and needs to shed blocks quicker.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Potential Team Fits:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/seahawks\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seattle Seahawks<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/titans\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tennessee Titans<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/dolphins\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miami Dolphins<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>NFL Projection:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jaylen Reed\u2019s NFL future is likely that of a rotational run-stopping hybrid safety. If he\u2019s able to put on some weight, he could find a niche as a Jamal Adams-type player who works downhill constantly. He could operate mostly in the box with teams allowing him to use his physicality to defend the interior. Much of his pro outlook depends on how teams choose to develop him and what route they take with his skillset. Reed has the coverage skills to survive on an NFL defense but has too many deficiencies to grade out as a long-term starter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Prospect Grade:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Late 4th Round to Early 5th Round<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Film Exposures:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 vs. Illinois<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 vs. Penn State<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2023 vs. Michigan<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Main Image: Jeff Hanisch &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview And Film Analysis Of 2025 NFL Draft Prospect And Penn State DB Jaylen Reed, A Run-Stopping Hybrid Defender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5364,"featured_media":198865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647],"tags":[32605,32937,32936,27083],"class_list":["post-198844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-jaylen-reed","tag-penn-state-football","tag-scouting-report"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}