{"id":156961,"date":"2026-03-08T15:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156961\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T15:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:37:10","slug":"uscs-makai-lemon-tops-new-york-jets-list-of-nfl-draft-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156961\/","title":{"rendered":"USC’s Makai Lemon tops New York Jets’ list of NFL draft prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 8, 2026, 6:56 a.m. PT<\/p>\n

Makai Lemon would be a dream pick for many NFL franchises that are looking to overhaul their receiver room this offseason. He has a deep skill set that should propel him to be a top receiver in the league someday. He fits the mold of a receiver that can be successful in any landing spot, and this bodes well for a destination like the New York Jets.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a recent mock draft<\/a> by Nate Davis with USA Today, Makai Lemon is slotted once again at one of his more popular landing spots, the New York Jets<\/a>. Here is what Davis had to say about why Lemon would be a great addition to the Jets:<\/p>\n

“With the pick obtained in\u00a0last year\u2019s trade of CB Sauce Gardner<\/a>, New York must continue to build out an infrastructure and talent base with which to surround its next potential franchise quarterback, who probably won\u2019t arrive before 2027. The Jets got very little production from the wideout position in 2025 for a variety of reasons, including Garrett Wilson missing 10 games. Lemon, a run-after-catch dynamo who typically works out of the slot, has been widely compared to fellow Trojan Amon-Ra St. Brown, whom the Jets\u2019 Aaron Glenn coached alongside in Detroit.”<\/p>\n

Aaron Glenn gets his shot to build the Jets in the exact image he wants this team, and a big part of that process is in the draft. Aaron Glenn had familiarity with just how good a receiver such as Amon-Ra St. Brown can be, and that is something he knows is very necessary in a successful offense in today’s game. A player like that has an impact that goes further than just the offense.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 8, 2026, 6:56 a.m. PT Makai Lemon would be a dream pick for many NFL franchises that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[679,9,11,10,56,62192,29129,27744,948,54753,3708,1944,950,690,1675,932,3712,60722,1328,19783,20445,949,20444,682],"class_list":["post-156961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-accessfree","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-ny","tag-sstssportscollegetrojansfootball","tag-sstsnfootball","tag-tag2026-nfl-draft","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagamon-ra-st-brown","tag-taggarrett-wilson","tag-tagnate-davis","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnew-york","tag-tagnew-york-jets","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-draft","tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsauce-gardner","tag-tagsouthern-california-trojans-football","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagusc-trojans","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}