The Eagles traded up in Round 1 to land Lemon following a season where he won the Fred Biletnikoff Award for being the best college receiver. He'll get picked in every redraft league around Round 8, and in every rookie-only draft with a top-four pick (if not top-two depending on format). The 5-foot-11, 192-pounder isn't the biggest nor the fastest, but he knows how to get open and uses his lateral agility and practiced route-running to do it. He's got great hands (three drops over 175 targets in his past two seasons), incredible toughness, terrific ball tracking, and NFL-ready versatility to make plays lining up anywhere. Sharing the field with DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert in 2026 might not yield a huge target share right away, but with Goedert potentially off the team by 2027, Lemon's chances to be a major contributor long-term are strong.
Fantasy Stats
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2026
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2025
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2024
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Fantasy News
Eagles' Makai Lemon: Dealing with hamstring injury
Rotowire
Lemon did not participate in Tuesday's practice due to a hamstring injury, Brooks Kubena of The Athletic reports.
The 2026 first-round pick observed practice off to the side with his right leg in a compression sleeve. Following Monday's trade of A.J. Brown to the Patriots, Lemon is expected to operate as the Eagles' WR2 alongside DeVonta Smith this season. The severity of his hamstring injury isn't clear, but it wouldn't be a surprise if Lemon is done for the remainder of OTAs, with the focus being on having him fully healthy for training camp in July.
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Eagles' Makai Lemon: Working with starters at OTAs
Rotowire
Lemon is working with the starters during 7-on-7 drills at OTAs on Wednesday, Eliot Shorr-Parks of Sports Radio 94 WIP Philadelphia reports.
Lemon is already working with Jalen Hurts and the starting offense one month after having joined the Eagles in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, 20th overall. Of course, with A.J. Brown and Dontayvion Wicks not present for voluntary OTAs, as Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, Lemon is currently only competing with Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore for starting reps behind DeVonta Smith. In the event that the Eagles do eventually part ways with Brown via trade after June 1, Lemon's path to an immediate stating role as a rookie will be clearer.
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Eagles' Makai Lemon: Selected by Eagles
Rotowire
The Eagles selected Lemon in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, 20th overall.
The expectation for some time has been that the Eagles will eventually trade A.J. Brown, and the selection of Lemon in the first round only reinforces that expectation. Lemon (5-foot-11, 193 pounds) is a very different receiver from Brown -- Brown is a prototypical boundary receiver whereas Lemon ideally fits in the slot -- but Lemon's play at USC gives reason to suspect he will draw targets and convert them efficiently as soon as he gets on the field. If the Eagles subtract Brown for Lemon then they might need to allocate more of their passing game toward the underneath and slot than they have otherwise during Jalen Hurts' time as starter.
