It was all over for Arvell Reese.

When an eight-second clip of a shirtless Reese running around a tackling dummy went viral, it caused hysteria on social media about his apparent lack of bend. There was no way any NFL team would draft him after that, right? How could an organization possibly overlook such a brutal moment?

Now, thanks to another viral clip of him working out shirtless, Reese is back on track to being drafted second overall by the New York Jets.

The latest Reese workout clip, shared by pass-rush specialist coach Brandon Jordan on X/Twitter, features Reese displaying plenty of bend and agility in various drills. It has been viewed nearly 900,000 times as of this writing.

Of course, it was always silly to use the clip from Ohio State’s pro day as a reason to criticize Reese. The 20-year-old was a dominant college player who didn’t show issues with bend on film. It made little sense to pretend that an eight-second workout clip should be weighed equally to a 14-game season of All-American production.

Context is king

Reese didn’t have bad bend on tape

People gotta relax with the overreactions to workouts

I get it, we are all bored https://t.co/wCD1rTsLAW

— Joe Blewett (@Joerb31) March 25, 2026

Not to mention, critics of the clip failed to realize that Reese was running a completely different drill than the one Miami’s Rueben Bain ran in another viral workout clip that was frequently compared to Reese’s.

Bain has more bend than Reese but to be fair, Reese was working to a bag directly behind and Bain was working to a bag horizontally https://t.co/nnI3Oux4L8

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) March 25, 2026

In the clip shared by Jordan, Reese ran drills more similar to those run by Bain in his clips. With an opportunity to perform in the same circumstances, it can be seen that Reese’s bend is just as good, if not quicker and more explosive, than his draft rival from down south.

The moral of the story should be simple: Whether good or bad, workout clips of football players should never be overreacted to. As much as Reese’s pro day clip shouldn’t have been used to downplay his game, this recent clip shouldn’t be used to hype him up, either. Neither one matters.

These wise words from former Jets wideout Davante Adams ring true in situations like this.

“Go run routes. And run full-speed routes. Because you do all these drills, I don’t want you to be out there doing stuff that ain’t going to translate to the game and help you,” Adams said. “[You don’t need to do] a bunch of drills on Instagram that look cool. We play football. And that’s what I do. I don’t share a lot of what I do behind the scenes, because I like to think that the proof is in the pudding. It’s all in the film.”

Amazing lesson here for athletes & coaches from all pro Davante Adams

“Don’t get caught up in drills on Instagram.”

Keep it simple, keep it effective, hammer fundamentals… a lesson applicable to athletes of ALL sports pic.twitter.com/IYxOctqyLc

— Gerry DeFilippo (@Challenger_ST) March 30, 2026

For that reason, studying prospects’ film remains immensely more important than nitpicking short clips designed to capture the modern mind’s attention span on social media.

You can take eight seconds to break down a guy doing something in shorts that he will never do in a game, or you can take a little extra time to fully grasp their skill set with in-depth analysis of their fundamentals and tendencies on film, which Jets X-Factor film analyst Joe Blewett takes pride in.

One of those strategies will get you thousands of likes on social media. One will help you actually understand a prospect.

It’s all up to the individual. Of course, the former tends to be more appealing in today’s world, but perhaps there remain some folks out there who still just want to talk some ball and leave the theatrics for the birds.