With an A.J. Brown trade looking more and more likely, the Eagles on Thursday drafted USC wide receiver Makai Lemon after trading up three spots for the 20th pick in the first round, giving Jalen Hurts a potential No. 2 option alongside DeVonta Smith if Brown is indeed traded later this offseason.<\/p>\n
The Eagles moved up three spots from 23 to 20 after trading with NFC East rival Dallas, the sixth time in the last eight years Roseman has traded up in the first round. The Eagles sent Dallas 23 and two 4th-round picks in this year\u2019s draft \u2013 No. 114 and No. 137 – and also got a 2027 7th-rounder back along with No. 20.<\/p>\n
Lemon, 5-foot-11, 195 pounds, is the fourth wide receiver the Eagles have added this offseason, joining free agent signings Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore and trade acquisition Dontayvion Wicks.<\/p>\n
After a good year in 2024, Lemon blossomed this past season with 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. He ranked second in the Big 10 to Ohio State\u2019s Jeremiah Smith in in catches and yards and third in touchdown catches, behind Smith and Indiana\u2019s Elijah Sarratt. His 1,156 yards were the most by a USC receiver since Michael Pittman had 1,275 in 2019.<\/p>\n
Lemon doesn\u2019t have elite high-end speed, but he\u2019s a brawler who loves to be physical with corners, and he\u2019s got great hands and the ability to make tough catches in traffic.<\/p>\n
Lemon, the Biletnikoff Award winner in 2025, is generally believed to be ideally suited to play the slot, but he said it\u2019s a mistake to limit him to only playing inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnywhere I go on the field, I\u2019m going to dominate,\u201d he said at the Combine. \u201cNo matter if I\u2019m inside, outside, no matter where I\u2019m at, I\u2019m going to do my best to do that. And if you put me on the field anywhere, you\u2019re going to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was asked what characteristics set him apart from all the other wide receiver prospects in this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably my fearlessness and my unwavering ability just to never back down,\u201d he said. \u201cThings don\u2019t go right in the road, I ain\u2019t never going to back down, tuck my tail. I\u2019m gonna problem solve. I\u2019m gonna get through it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take this game very serious. My fierce competitiveness. This game very serious. It\u2019s the way I feed my family, so I ain\u2019t going to let nobody in front of me take that away from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to get in the end zone. I ain\u2019t going to let nobody in my way stop me from doing that. So the fastest way I can do that, I\u2019m going to do that for sure. I can turn a 2-, 3-yard route into a big gain, even possibly a touchdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lemon is the third wide receiver Howie Roseman has drafted in the first round, following Jalen Reagor 21stoverall in 2020 and DeVonta Smith 10th overall in 2021. Reagor was one of Roseman\u2019s worst picks ever and Smith was one of his best. He\u2019s the first WR the Eagles have drafted in the first four rounds sine Smith five years ago.<\/p>\n
The last wide receiver the Eagles drafted in the first round to make a Pro Bowl was Mike Quick, the 20thpick out of North Carolina State in 1982. Since then, they\u2019ve taken Kenny Jackson fourth in 1984, Freddie Mitchell 25th in 2001, Jeremy Maclin 19th in 2009, Nelson Agholor 20th in the 2015 Chip Kelly draft along with Reagor and Smith.<\/p>\n
Only one of the last 30 wide receivers the Eagles have drafted has made a Pro Bowl. That\u2019s DeSean Jackson, a 2nd-round pick in 2008. Before that it was Fred Barnett, a 3rd-round pick in 1990.<\/p>\n
Lemon is the fifth USC player the Eagles have drafted in the first round, following linebacker Tim Rossovich 14th overall in 1968, tight end Charlie Young sixth in 1973, defensive tackle Mike Paterson 31st in 2005 and Agholor in 2015.<\/p>\n
The last USC player Roseman drafted was defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu in the sixth round in 2021. He\u2019s currently with the Giants after playing three years with the Eagles and two with the Chiefs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With an A.J. Brown trade looking more and more likely, the Eagles on Thursday drafted USC wide receiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[31803,8018,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-174548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-eagles-news","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","12":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}