Eagles select wide receiver Makai Lemon at No. 20 after draft night trade with Cowboys

Makai Lemon’s phone rang. The USC wide receiver was in Pittsburgh attending the draft, and for a second he was home. It was the Steelers on the line.

But the phone rang again.

“It was the Eagles,” Lemon said.

The Eagles traded two fourth-round picks to arch rival Dallas to move three spots ahead and select Lemon with the 20th pick.

Lemon, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound junior, had 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns last season at USC while playing the majority of his snaps in the slot. He was expected to be drafted much earlier than No. 20, and the Eagles moved ahead of Pittsburgh in order to draft a receiver whose ball skills are well-regarded.

The Eagles “had a good sense” of the players who would be selected within the first 15 picks. Lemon was one of them, until he fell out of that range.

“We just felt like this was a player that we wanted to go up and get, just based on where our board was at that time, where we were picking,” Howie Roseman said. “It just felt like it made a lot of sense based on our board. When you have a player that you like that’s ranked higher on your board than where you’re picking, you think at every pick that he’s going to be selected. That’s just the way the draft is. You think everyone is thinking the way that you are. We didn’t want to sit on our hands. We wanted to go get him.”

The selection of Lemon came while the A.J. Brown situation with the team continues to play out. Earlier this week, an ESPN report said that Brown’s trade to the New England Patriots is “tracking to happen” after June 1.

“A.J. is a member of the Eagles,” Roseman said, reiterating his recent remarks on the topic. “We don’t have any trades that have been made, or that are done. For us, we’re taking this one day at a time and we’re going to look to improve the team tomorrow and will continue to address anything that we have to with our roster, not only through this draft weekend, but we’ll continue to look for ways to improve the team throughout the offseason and as we get into training camp.”

As it stands, the depth chart at wide receiver is officially crowded like a Flyers penalty box.

» READ MORE: Beyond the grade: 360-degree analysis of Eagles Day 1 pick Makai Lemon

The Eagles in recent weeks have loaded the position with an infusion of talent. In addition to drafting Lemon, they have added Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore in free agency and traded with Green Bay for Dontayvion Wicks, who they promptly extended.

The expectation seems to be that A.J. Brown will not be on the team come training camp. That would leave Smith as the No. 1 receiver with a group behind him that includes Lemon, Wicks, Hollywood Brown, Moore, Darius Cooper, and others.

The Eagles acquired a 2027 seventh-round pick from the Cowboys in addition to pick No. 20 in exchange for pick Nos. 114 and 137. The deal and draft pick marked the fifth time in the last eight drafts that Howie Roseman has traded up in the first round.

Lemon said he met with the Eagles at the combine and later visited the team on a top 30 visit. He is the first offensive player selected by the Eagles since Smith in 2021.

“They’re going to get somebody that’s coming in and wants to compete at a high level,” Lemon said on a Zoom call with Eagles reporters shortly after being drafted.

Nick Sirianni lauded Lemon’s toughness.

“Insane ability to catch the ball in contested situations,” Sirianni said. “I love his toughness. I think this guy is a tough, tough football player with the way he carries the football … how he blocks.

“A guy that’s competitive is not only competitive when the ball is coming to him, he’s competitive in all situations, and that’s hard to turn off.”

Roseman said “there’s a lot to like” about Lemon.

“Competitor, has the ability to separate in man coverage out of the slot, he can play outside, physical player, really good with the ball in his hands, really good hands, good in zone coverage, has really good instincts,” he said.

Lemon, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, “doesn’t wow with his size or athletic profile, but he is a smooth, manipulative route runner and catches everything thrown his way. Similar in ways to fellow former Trojans receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, he already plays like a pro and projects as an NFL starter (Z or slot).”

According to The Ringer’s Todd McShay, Lemon posted three-plus yards per route run versus both man and zone. Only five other receivers drafted since 2021 have done the same, according to McShay: Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Miami’s Jaylen Waddle and Dee Eskridge, Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase, and DeVonta Smith.

That’s some good company.

“One of Lemon’s superpowers is how cleanly he catches the football,” McShay wrote in his scouting profile of Lemon. “He had just one true drop in 2025. He’s an advanced route runner who adjusts smoothly on the move and does everything at full speed and under control.”

The Eagles were expected to prioritize offense in the early rounds of the draft given the nature of their aging and expensive offense juxtaposed with a defense that is young and ascending. But receiver seemed on the back burner because of their need to get the offensive tackle of the future in the building.

Three tackles went in the first 12 picks, including Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor, a player the Eagles had been connected to, at No. 12 to Miami. Clemson’s Blake Miller went No. 17 to Detroit, and Georgia’s Monroe Freeling went two picks later to Carolina.

Lemon, meanwhile was falling. The Eagles moved ahead of the Steelers, who had needs at tackle and receiver. The Eagles could have selected Arizona State tackle Max Iheanachor. Instead, they nabbed a slipping receiver.

“We just kind of let it come to [us],” Roseman said. “We can’t control that and we can’t control what other teams are going to select.”

They could control who Pittsburgh had the ability to select, though. Roseman said it took a few more minutes than it normally does to get Lemon on the phone.

“I feel like everything happens for a reason,” Lemon said. “They traded up, so it means a lot, that they really want me.

“I was definitely shocked, but I couldn’t be more happy that they did. I’m super blessed. It was the right time and the right team and everything worked out just how it’s supposed to be.”