Jalen Royals is going to be drafted into the NFL this year.
Practically everyone associated with the sport is agreed on that.
When the former Utah State standout wide receiver will be selected — and by what team — remains a question, though.
Royals has some traits that are elite and put him at the level of the best wide receivers in the draft. Most draftniks have Royals as a top 10 wideout prospect, with him rising as high as top seven for more than a few.
There are also some real question marks surrounding him, too, due in part to his late arrival on the college football stage, the level of competition that he played against in college and the injury he suffered his senior season that ended his Utah State career short.
With the 2025 NFL Draft now only two weeks away, here’s what draft experts think of Royals. His strengths, his weaknesses and when he will be selected in the draft.
NFL.com
Lance Zierlein: “Skilled and instinctive, Royals might lack the desired explosiveness, but he makes up for it with his body control and feel for the game. He has good size and is keenly aware of defenders around him, which allows him to adjust routes and improve his chances on contested catches. He’s a decent route-runner but doesn’t have the short-area foot quickness and burst to open wide windows for his quarterback.
“He’s excellent as a zone-beater and uses plus body control and play strength to bring in catches in traffic. Royals is a smooth athlete who can play inside or outside and is best suited for an offense that will value him as a possession target over the first two levels.”
Strengths
- Keenly aware of where defenders are positioned
- Smooth insertion of wrinkles and leverage into his routes
- Fights hard for his catch space on contested throws
- Works aggressively back to the throw
- Impressive body control and coordination to get catch-ready
- Gets into run mode before the ball touches his hands underneath
- Can be hard to bring down by first tackler in the open field
Weaknesses
- Just two seasons as a full-time player and producer in college
- Lacks desired suddenness to shake an NFL press
- Early vertical push fails to concern defenders
- Shows slight rounding of the break at the top of the route
- Average foot quickness and burst to separate
Draft projection
- Rounds 2 or 3
The Athletic
Dane Brugler: “… Thanks in part to his basketball background, Royals has a controlled, fluid stride and natural body coordination to be a weapon before and after the catch (10 catches of 50 yards or more over the past two seasons ranked No. 1 in the FBS). His tape showed heavy helpings of screens, hitches and go routes, and he is still learning the nuances of route running, although he showed improvements during Senior Bowl practices.
“Overall, Royals combines smooth footwork with athletic body control, physical play strength and tracking skills to be a three-level threat as he expands his route tree. He has the talent to emerge as a team’s WR2 within his first few NFL seasons.”
Strengths
- Early acceleration to stack cornerbacks
- Burst to separate and create passing windows out of breaks
- Shimmies feet to shake press or make safeties miss once he gets to open field (17 forced missed tackles in 2024)
- Efficient catch-and-go skills to create on slants, bubbles and tunnel screens
- Tracks football and finishes with strong hands
- Able to flip his hips and maintain focus on throws to his opposite shoulder
- Built to play physical and showed improved run strength on his 2024 tape (added 10 pounds of trim muscle between junior and senior seasons)
- Added kick return duties in 2024, averaging 20.4 yards per return (nine attempts for 184 yards)
- Reserved personality and described as an “incredible teammate” with “no ego” by offensive coordinator Kyle Cefalo
Weaknesses
- Wasn’t asked to run a diverse route tree
- Will round his breaks at times and needs to better set up route stems
- Inconsistent finishing grabs in traffic
- All three of his drops in 2024 came when he didn’t secure the ball before looking upfield on quick hitters
- Needs to improve batting average as a blocker
- Missed final five games of his senior season after suffering a torn deltoid in his right foot (October 2024)
Draft projection
- Rounds 2 or 3
Bleacher Report
Dame Parson: “… Royals is a good and precise route runner with short-area quickness that puts pressure on cornerbacks. He generates separation with suddenness out of his breaks against man coverage. Facing soft press or off coverage, Royals’ foot quickness puts defenders in conflict and tests their reaction time. He attacks defenders’ airspace before using sudden movements to break past or away from them.
“Royals is effective with the ball in space. His functional play strength is showcased after the catch — leading to broken tackles in the open field. Royals’ speed and acceleration defeat pursuit angles. He is agile and elusive in space, making upfield defenders miss and generating big plays. Royals’ playmaking is versatile; he aligns in multiple positions and can be fed targets in various ways to help the offense. He is a threat on down-the-field routes and manufactured touches, wide receiver, and tunnel screens.
“Against tight press alignment Royals gets stuck hand fighting in the contact window. Improving his use of hands will increase his likelihood of clearing physical press corners quickly at the LOS. By not using his hands, corners have easy access to his chest and shoulder pads to slow down/impede forward progress. Royals is inconsistent at reeling in contested catches down the field. Wingspan and arm length concerns surface in 50-50 situations. Royals can be outmuscled at the catch point, limiting his effectiveness playing on the outside against NFL corners.”
Strengths
- Dynamic playmaker with the football in his hands, dangerous after the catch
- Effective and reliable quick passing game threat who finds and settles into voids in the coverage shells
- Long speed to stress cornerbacks on the vertical plane
- Short area quickness and suddenness as a route runner
Weaknesses
- Expanding his release package to dispose of physical press cornerbacks quickly
- Suffered a season-ending foot injury in October, cutting his senior season short
- Protecting his chest and shoulders against handsy defenders at the line of scrimmage
- Converting downfield contested catch situations by improving body positioning and strength at the catch point
Draft projection
The Draft Network
Daniel Harms: “… The plan of attack for Royals is well thought out, and he plays the position with fantastic timing and intention. This season, he aligned primarily on the outside for Utah State but has positional versatility to play all receiver roles. While he could add more releases to his package, he deliberately uses them and will vary when and how often he changes how he’s releasing into his stem. When facing soft press, Royals uses his hands reactively to keep his momentum and body language to sell vertical routes to defenders. He’s smart about getting them to turn their hips and breaking off his routes when they’ve shown their hand. A steep climb in physicality and competitive play can be challenging to adjust, but the tools are there to defeat press; the experience will come with time.
“At the breakpoint, Royals gets his head to the quarterback and efficiently tracks the ball to all areas of the field. He doesn’t let the ball travel too far and attacks it with his hands whenever he can with proper technique. When he gets the ball in his hands, he is always looking for space and he knows how to get there. With a great center of gravity and quick feet, he routinely makes defenders miss tackles and bursts into space. He’s a better accelerator than a top-speed threat, but he’s not slow and tough over the middle of the field and after the catch. With the ball in the air, he’s an impressive tracker and can time his jumps with the best in the class. He has some incredible catches on his highlight reel.
“Royals is a three-level threat with the tools to make impressive jumping grabs with his track background. He can win in a multitude of ways, and that’s the sign of a genuinely impactful receiver.”
Strengths
- Route-running
- Stem manipulation
- Acceleration
- Yards after the catch
Weaknesses
- Handling physicality through the route
- Release variety
- Press comfort
Draft projection
- Rounds 2 or 3
Pro Football Network
Brentley Weissman: “… Royals is at his best when he is working vertically down the field or when he has the ball in his hands. He offers excellent speed, quickness, and burst, and he also has the ability to leap and elevate himself above the defenders. He has just average size but really good play strength.
“Royals has excellent straight-line speed and acceleration. He fires off the line of scrimmage and attacks the defensive back and eats up cushion in a hurry. One of my favorite things about Royals is how aggressive he is through the stem and how he is able to make the corner respect the vertical threat with every rep. This allows Royals to then quickly cut off his route and break in or out and leave the corner in his pedal, creating easy separation.
“He routinely won vertically down the field and showed the ability to locate and play the ball over his shoulder. Royals is an above-average overall route runner and can create separation both vertically and laterally. There are times when he rounds his route at the break point and will need to be more concise at the next level.
“A true playmaker, Royals is outstanding with the ball in his hands and a threat to score whenever he touches the football. He is a highly instinctual player who has a good feel for space and where defenders are on the field. This allows him to naturally evade defenders in the open field and run to daylight. He is a densely built player who can bounce off contact and doesn’t allow defenders to work through him back to the football.”
Strengths
- Very good speed to win vertically down the field
- Outstanding short-area quickness and change of direction with the ball in his hands
- Dynamic after the catch and has good instincts and creativity as a runner
- Natural hands catcher who plucks the ball out of the air and can contort his body to make catches outside of his frame
- Creative route runner who incorporates head and body fakes throughout the route
- Alignment versatility as he can play both outside or in the slot
Weaknesses
- Rounds his routes at the top of the break point
- Just average size and length
- Lacks refinement and needs to work on overall craft to be a more consistent route runner
Draft projection
- Rounds 2 or 3
The 33rd Team
Kyle Crabbs: “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.
“… 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.”
Strengths
- 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
Weaknesses
- 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
Draft projection
Fantasy Pros
Matthew Jones: “One of the more unique receiver prospects in this class, as he is hardly a physical specimen, nor does he run the crispest routes, but rather manages to play much bigger than his size. With his strong, thick frame, he’s able to stay on track against physical coverage.
“Royals performed much better in contested catch situations than expected because of his impressive adjustments to the ball. He showed impressive power and bursts after the catch to run through tackles.”
Strengths
- A thickly-built receiver who was moved around the formation, taking snaps both on and off the line of scrimmage, primarily on the outside but with an increasing amount from the slot
- Does a nice job of varying his tempo off the line of scrimmage to release. Shows good strength and balance to keep his routes on track through contact. Understands how to stack opposing defenders. Makes good adjustments to throws away from his frame and sells out to make the catch.
- Strength, focus, and concentration have allowed him to perform better on contested catches than his frame would suggest. … Gets up to speed quickly and can run through arm tackles and create big plays off of shorter throws, with a good burst after the catch. Shows good competitiveness in finishing his runs. Works hard to line up and engage opponents as a stalker, with the toughness teams look for in that role. Also has some experience returning kicks.
Weaknesses
- Season-ending foot injury will require further medical investigation during the pre-draft process
- Stats were somewhat padded by a high volume of manufactured touches
- Release package looks relatively simple, and benefited from taking a lot of snaps off the line of scrimmage, in bunch formations, or against off-coverage, allowing him to get clean releases at the line
- Routes aren’t the snappiest at the stem and he doesn’t create a ton of separation against man coverage
- Relies on tempo changes to get behind the defense. Looks more explosive in short areas than fast in terms of overall speed
- Has some tendencies to run himself into zone coverage, rather than settling into soft spots. Doesn’t present the biggest target. His lack of ideal separation skills means he may require a relatively pinpoint quarterback who is willing to give him chances in coverage.
Draft projection
- Rounds 3 or 4
The Huddle
David Dorey: “Royals is an interesting prospect. On one hand, his accomplishments can be downplayed simply from playing in the Mountain West Conference and starting just for a season and a half. But – he had success when given the chance and had to mesh with two or three quarterbacks per season. He’s still a bit raw both in experience and the total mechanics of being an NFL receiver, but there are reasons to believe he could be a surprise.
“Expectations range from a late Day 2 selection to an early Day 3 pick. He was noted for impressive adjustments to the ball and catching contested passes. Royals won’t be asked to step into a Week 1 starting role, at least probably, but is one to watch. Much depends on where he ends up and the situation he finds there, but it’s a lock that wherever he ends up will be far better than what he left in college. He just has to prove to be up to that challenge.”
Strengths
- Excelled for both seasons as a starter while setting school records
- Above-average acceleration.
- Deadly after the catch with the speed to take it to the end zone
- Flypaper hands and able to adjust to balls throughout his route
- Versatile receiver that played both slot and outside
- Continually improved in college
- Plays with good focus on contested catches
Weaknesses
- Did not face top-tier competition in the Mountain West Conference
- Blocking skills need more refinement
- Less productive in press coverage
- Route tree needs expansion for NFL offenses
- Previous season-ending foot injury in second season needs to be cleared by drafting team
Draft projection
- Rounds 3 or 4
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