Jalen Royals film review; Meet the Chiefs' newest WR
Reviewing the film of KC's 4th round pick, who (on paper) has a skillset they could use on the boundary.
With the Chiefs’ 2025 draft now in the books, we have a ton of new film to review. My favorite part of the draft is examining new players to try and figure out where they win, where they need work, and how they can fit in with the Chiefs in their first season and beyond. Here are the film reviews we’ve already done for this year’s draft class:
Round 1: LT Josh Simmons (both pre-draft review and post-draft looking at the potential plan for him)
Today, by popular request, we’re going to skip Round 3 picks Ashton Gillotte and Nohl Williams (I PROMISE you we’re coming back to them, as a brief look at their film has me very excited to talk about them in-depth). I asked Chiefs fans on Twitter who they’d like to see broken down first, and they picked new 4th round WR Jalen Royals by a landslide.
That doesn’t necessarily surprise me. People love hearing about guys on the offensive side of the ball, and Royals is a pick that many (including our friends at
) didn’t expect to be available where he was taken (pick 133). Oh, and also, he has plays like this on film.
PHEW.
I’ve written before about why you can never have too many good receivers. Given the numbers involved, you commonly have 3 on the field and sometimes even 4. Also, receivers work as a force multiplier for one another given how they affect opposing defenses:
I’ve written previously about “gravity” when it comes to receivers, both in the context of threatening the field deep as well as in the context of just being a good/great player that defenses have to key on. The basic idea is that a good receiver forces the defense to key on him… but if there are multiple good receivers on the field the ability of a defense to do so is limited and they’re forced to “pick their poison.” They are also forced to match up inferior CBs (their 2nd or 3rd best) on a good player, which creates mismatches and may dictate them away from certain coverages.
There’s also the fact that there are some questions as to whether Rashee Rice will be ready to start the season after tearing the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee, AND whether he’ll be suspended to start the season. So there may be an opportunity to get on the field early for the rookie, particularly if he can show the ability to take snaps on the boundary (given that Rice, Xavier Worthy, and Hollywood Brown are all guys who take snaps out of the slot as well as the boundary, with Rice in particular being most effective out of the slot).
So let’s talk about Royals, 6’0”, 205 receiver out of Utah State whose 40 time (4.42) as well as 10-yard and 20-yard splits (1.53 and 2.56) suggest a guy with enough juice to threaten down the field.
When looking at Royals’ film, I used the same methodology I used for previous seasons’ “know your draft crush” articles when looking at WRs, as well as when I looked at Luther Burden III. The idea is to look at the traits Royals has in the areas of speed/acceleration/agility, releases, route running, hands/catch point work, YAC/playmaking… and then walk away with an overall takeaway.
(NOTE - Game clips are demonstrative, not dispositive. I don’t show them to “prove” any trait I’m writing about or to “prove” a prospect is good. I show them to demonstrate a point I’m discussing about their film… and in some cases, for fun. So keep that in mind!)
-Speed / acceleration / agility-
Royals is a player whose athletic ability shows up more in bursts than it does in change of direction. His ability to accelerate is where he wins, both when he’s going down the field and when he changes direction to cross the middle of the field. His timed splits show up well in those moments, as he’s able to gear up to top speed very quickly and comfortably. This shows up on routes down the field (see the first clip above) as well as when the ball is in his hands.
We’ll talk more about Royals’ YAC ability shortly, but he can scoot in a hurry and that does a lot to mess with angles in that department. It also messes with defenders’ angles/plans on downfield routes. His top speed isn’t elite and perhaps not even high-level, but he gets there FAST.
Royals’ ability to gear up quickly allows him to shake loose from coverage at all three levels, as he can open up shallow and underneath by finding a gear after a cut as well as grab a few steps early once he’s “even” with a CB trying to go down the field. Similar to Rashee Rice (keep in mind we’re comparing one trait here, not the entire player, so don’t get too carried away), that acceleration ability out of breaks and in the first 10-20 yards of his routes is one of Royals’ biggest strengths.