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Eagles Trade Up for Southern Cal Receiver Makai Lemon
Published:
Howie Roseman made a trade with the Cowboys to move up to 20 and grab Southern Cal receiver Makai Lemon:
“I ain’t doing no playing,” said Lemon, who told Eagles fans they’re getting a dawg. Which, I mean, hell yes. That is what we like to hear. Nothing but business for Mr. Lemon, who won the Biletnikoff this past season as college football’s best receiver. He caught 79 passes for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns, going for 100+ against Georgia Southern, Michigan State, Illinois, Northwestern, and Iowa. He is 5’11”, 192 pounds, a guy who played the majority of his snaps in the slot but is honestly pretty versatile and can line up anywhere. He got a lot of comps to Amon-Ra St. Brown in the pre-draft process and was lauded for his football smarts and excellent hands.
Here’s the writeup from Lance Zierlein at NFL.com:
High-skill, high-volume slot receiver with average size but extraordinary ball skills. Lemon has room for refinement, but not much. He’s intelligent, confident and polished with the ability to make plays on all three levels. Tempo-driven route-runner who misdirects man coverage and separates out of turns but is fairly average after the catch. Quicker than fast, featuring early acceleration to open seam throws but flashes late burst when needed. More play strength is needed for NFL press and he needs to avoid rushing through multi-breaking routes. He’s an exceptional ball-tracker with excellent catch timing and few focus drops. He wins more combat catches than he loses. Lemon is a plug-and-play, quarterback-friendly talent with first-round value and Pro Bowl upside.
Funny enough, the Eagles traded with the Cowboys in 2021 to move up and get DeVonta Smith, and we all know how that worked out. Here’s hoping history repeats itself.
And yes, this is the end of the A.J. Brown era. The Birds have Smitty, drafted Lemon, and added Hollywood Brown, Elijah Moore, and Dontayvion Wicks, so A.J. is gone. But I think we already knew that.
Enjoy:
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