The Eagles liked USC wide receiver Makai Lemon enough to make a trade with the Cowboys to get their guy at No. 20. After the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, general manager Howie Roseman and head coach Nick Sirianni spoke with reporters about what they liked about Lemon, how he’ll add to the WR room, and why they moved up to get him.
“ROSEMAN: He has a lot to like about him — 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, really good in zone coverage, has really good insights.”
SIRIANNI: Insane ability to catch the ball in contested situations. I love his toughness, I think this guy is a tough, tough football player with the way he carries the football, and when he has the football in his hands and how he blocks. Insanely competitive, so there’s a lot to like. Really excited he’s added to our roster.“
Sirianni later talked about Lemon being a versatile player who can play inside and outside, so they don’t want to commit him to the slot, but he’s excited to get the WR in the building and see what he can do. The head coach also highlighted one of Lemon’s tape that showed relentless effort to chase down a defender after an interception, and how he’s a guy that is competitive in all things, even when the ball isn’t coming his way.
Howie explained that it’s impossible to predict how the draft is going to play out, and while it was difficult for them to give up their two fourth round picks — with the GM noting they were excited to start early on Saturday — they felt like it was important to get Lemon. He revealed that they had the WR in their Top 15 prospects, so when he didn’t go in the first 15 picks, they started looking for opportunities to move up. The GM also said that they had walked through a scenario that Lemon ended up falling past 15, and they ended up trading to get him.
One of the bigger storylines from Day 1 of the draft was Makai Lemon being called up by the Steelers before the Eagles traded up to get him. Howie was asked about how that impacted their process.
“ROSEMAN: When we get on the clock, we immediately try and contact the player. It took us a couple minutes to contact the player and get him on the phone. You know, that hasn’t happened very often, so the clock got down a little bit lower than we would’ve liked, but we were able to get in touch with him and obviously select him.“
Howie wouldn’t admit that they were specifically trying to block the Steelers from getting Lemon, and explained that based on their board, they felt the right move was to move up to get the WR. He quipped that when you have a player valued higher than your pick, you assume every team ahead of you is taking that guy, that’s just how the draft works out.
The GM later said that they did not speak to the Steelers after the situation about how things went down.
Howie talked about how they wanted to build up the wide receiver room this offseason and it was a specific area they wanted to address. They wanted to collect what would amount to a basketball team — different players with different skillsets, which would give them versatility and depth.
As for how this move may impact A.J. Brown, especially among the recent speculation that the Eagles have a deal in place with the Patriots post-June 1, Howie stayed with the company line.
“ROSEMAN: Again, A.J. [Brown] is a member of the Eagles. We don’t have any trades that have been made or that are done. I think for us, we’re taking this one day at a time. We’re going to look to improve the team tomorrow, and we’ll 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.”