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Hey, at Least We Now Have a Blueprint for How Makai Lemon Should Be Used
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We’re all about positivity at Crossing Broad, and one of the very few silver linings from Monday night’s debacle was a coming out party for 1st round draft pick Makai Lemon. Call it a Lemon Party, if you will, as the rookie went for 67 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions:
Nothing crazy in this chart, which looks like a typical slot receiver chart. They threw him a couple of quick outs, some slants, and some shallow drags across the middle of the formation. He didn’t catch a pass thrown 10 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage, but he wasn’t even targeted at that distance.
You see the green continuation lines on a couple of those receptions, which indicate yards after the catch. 37 of his 67 yards were YAC, and it was good to see him running in space after some early weeks of bullshit targets on bubble screens and the like.
Last year, Lemon led the Big 10 with 502 yards after the catch. He caught 79 passes for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns, so those 502 YAC amount to 43.4% of his receiving yards. He was 15th in the country in total YAC and averaged 6.4 YAC per reception. Lemon was deployed mostly as an interior receiver and won the Biletnikoff by killing opponents in the middle of the field with his route running and ball skills and high-volume usage in Lincoln Riley’s Air Raid-derivative system.
Funny enough, they did run a bunch of screens at USC, so the Eagles probably saw that on tape and thought they’d try it in the NFL. But the Eagles can’t block those plays to save their lives, and they don’t benefit from playing inferior opponents at this level. That’s why the Lemon screen plays have been a disaster. He did run them in college, and can run them, but the Birds’ can’t scheme it up or block it, which is problematic.
They’ve pivoted off of that and thrown Lemon some different stuff and he’s looked a lot better over the past three weeks.
And, honestly, his best trait the other night might have been the toughness shown on the touchdown, when he caught a slant over the middle and took a big hit while holding on and lunging across the line:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com