They hit it off immediately, two Eagles 1st-round wide receivers bonding at a 76ers-Celtics game.<\/p>\n
Makai Lemon and DeVonta Smith have only been teammates for a week now, but they\u2019ve already started building the kind of relationship they\u2019ll need as the Eagles\u2019 presumptive WR1 and WR2 in a post-A.J. Brown world. And it all began court-side at the Xfinity Mobile Arena during Game 3 of the 76ers-Celtics series.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were chopping up a little bit,\u201d Lemon said Thursday. \u201cI wasn’t trying to pick his brain too much. He’s chilling. But I definitely got to talk to him to see how things are going. see how the team is, and he said I’m gonna love it.<\/p>\n
\u201c(He said), \u2018You came to a great organization a great team, a brotherhood so I’m super excited to get around the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith was the Eagles\u2019 10th\u00a0pick in 2021 after a trade-up with the Cowboys, and Lemon was their 20th\u00a0pick this year after a trade-up with the Cowboys.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s 385 catches, 5,019 yards and 31 touchdowns are most ever by an Eagle in his first five years.<\/p>\n
With Brown expected to be unloaded on or after June 1, he\u2019ll step into the WR1 role and Lemon becomes WR2.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll need to have a close bond to flourish in those roles, and that process has already begun.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, super humble guy, super chill, super calm, kind of my type of vibe,\u201d Lemon said. \u201cSo I feel like me and him clicked on those things. When you step on the field, he\u2019s already got that dog mentality. So I think me and him are going to click well, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith is listed at 6-foot, 170 pounds and Lemon is 5-11, 192. There have only been three seasons in franchise history where two Eagles WRs who were 6-0 or shorter and 200 pounds or less had 500 yards in the same season. The first time was 1961 with Tommy McDonald and Bobby Walston and the second was 2021 with Smith and Quez Watkins.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s rare but it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
Lemon believes he can learn a lot about playing at a high level in the NFL as an undersized receiver just from watching Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, he\u2019s definitely not the biggest guy, not the tallest guy on the field. But having that heart makes him such an impact player. And that’s what sticks out to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you have a guy like that on your team, lined up next to you, I feel like that’s only going to make you better. And I feel like we can help each other in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interesting that the Eagles drafted both Lemon and Nelson Agholor out of USC with the 20th\u00a0overall pick. Also interesting that Mike Quick was the 20thpick in the 1982 draft.<\/p>\n
Lemon had a monster 2025 season, with 79 catches, 1,156 yards, 11 touchdowns and a 14.6 average for the Trojans.<\/p>\n
On Friday, he\u2019ll be out on the practice fields at the Jefferson Health Training Complex for the first time as the Eagles begin rookie practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just super excited,\u201d he said. \u201cHit the ground running, get the cleats on my feet, get the balls in the air, get around my teammates. That\u2019s a great feeling. That\u2019s where I\u2019m best, on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
We won\u2019t know until the full team assembles for minicamps next month how the Eagles will line up their receivers, whether Lemon will stay in the slot with Smith and Dontayvion Wicks or Hollywood Brown outside or whether Lemon will work both outside an in the slot.<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019s ready for anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I enjoy any spot, inside or outside,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like that’s something that I cherish about my game where you can move me all around and I’m still comfortable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can win inside or outside. So, whatever the team wants me to do, wherever I’m the best fit for the offense, I’m here to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wherever he lines up, there will be an immense amount of pressure on Lemon since he\u2019ll be taking the place of Brown, a three-time Pro Bowler, four-time 1,000-yard receiver and one of the half dozen greatest receivers wide receiver in franchise history.<\/p>\n
The Eagles sure believe he\u2019s up for the task. That\u2019s why he\u2019s here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I lay my head on my pillow at night before I go to sleep, I’m just thinking about the long journey that it took to get here,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the trials and tribulations, all the long nights, all the workouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s such a great feeling that I pushed through it, had a support system behind me to get me to this point. So it’s definitely such a great feeling that I’m here now and the start of a new chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They hit it off immediately, two Eagles 1st-round wide receivers bonding at a 76ers-Celtics game. Makai Lemon and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6107,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-182373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-eagles-blog","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182373","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=182373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}