The Eagles traded up to draft USC WR Makai Lemon with the No. 20 overall pick on Thursday — a notable move given the trade buzz surrounding star WR A.J. Brown. Brown is likely on his way out of Philly, so Lemon should slot into a big role right away in the City of Brotherly Love. Let’s look at this pick from a fantasy perspective.
MAKAI LEMON
- Lemon was primarily a slot receiver in college and has drawn frequent comparisons to fellow USC Trojan Amon-Ra St. Brown, with both Lance Zierlein and Daniel Jeremiah likening the two. Lemon played sparingly as a freshman, then improved in Year 2 before a stellar Biletnikoff-winning junior season catapulted him to being a first-round draft pick. Lemon reeled in 79 balls for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns in his final season in Los Angeles, scoring twice more on nine carries as a runner. His size — 5-foot-11, 192 pounds — could confine him to the slot, but scouts have few questions about his chances of translating to the pros. Our Anthony Amico noted that the only other two first-round WRs since 2014 with a college slot rate of at least 60% and a career yards per route run above 3.0 were Jaylen Waddle and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Good company. Underdog NFL noted after he was drafted that he ranks third in missed tackles forced and second in yards per route run among draft-eligible WRs.
- It seems extraordinarily likely that A.J. Brown is not an Eagle by the time Week 1 comes around, with the Patriots seeming like the most probable destination. Philadelphia’s decision to come up for a wide receiver cements that notion. The Eagles have steadfastly maintained all offseason that they have extreme confidence in DeVonta Smith as their WR1, but Lemon should be the immediate WR2 with free-agent signings Dontayvion Wicks and Marquise Brown as his only competition. This Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley rendition of the Eagles’ offense skews very run-heavy: They were easily last in the league in pass attempts in 2024 before jumping all the way up to 26th last year. With that being said, it’s also been an incredibly concentrated aerial attack around Smith, Brown, and Dallas Goedert. A lot of that is because those three were far more talented than any other pass catcher they had, but Smith, Goedert, and Lemon should still have a big talent edge over Wicks and this version of Hollywood Brown. Lemon is very talented and will have the slot role right away in Philly.
OTHER EAGLES PASS CATCHERS
- DeVonta Smith is the clear WR1 here and has proven himself capable of earning monster target shares without A.J. Brown. Over the last two years, his target shares in three healthy games sans AJB were 45%, 26%, and 33%. He will be the unquestioned WR1 in town once the Brown trade is official.
- Lemon has primarily been a slot receiver to this point in his career. If that remains the case, Wicks and Marquise Brown will be competing for one WR spot. Brown has quieted down over the past two seasons, while Wicks has consistently earned targets in Green Bay (but not always performed on those targets). Both Wicks and Brown take a significant hit with the Lemon selection since the rookie likely out-targets them both.
- Similarly, Goedert’s target share will be lower than it would have been if the Eagles had simply rolled with Wicks and Brown as their WR2/3, but the overall situation for him is better than it’s been in past years with an unproven (but admittedly clearly very talented) rookie instead of one of the best wideouts in football in A.J. Brown.
