{"id":855896,"date":"2026-04-05T22:49:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T22:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:49:19","slug":"makai-lemon-heads-to-philadelphia-eagles-in-new-nfl-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855896\/","title":{"rendered":"Makai Lemon heads to Philadelphia Eagles in new NFL mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 5, 2026, 7:44 a.m. PT<\/p>\n

With rumored player movements potentially happening during the NFL draft and after June 1, the door could open for contending teams to make a move for a pass catcher instead of one of their bigger needs. That could push USC Trojan Makai Lemon<\/a> to land with a team he was not projected to join. In the latest NFL Network mock draft<\/a>, Chad Reuter has Makai Lemon sliding in the draft and ending up with the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> at pick 23. Here is what he said about Lemon ending up in Philadelphia:<\/p>\n

“Lemon is\u00a0pegged as a slot receiver<\/a>, but he can play outside just fine when\u00a0DeVonta Smith<\/a>\u00a0works inside. This pick becomes even more important if\u00a0A.J. Brown<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0dealt<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Many think that Makai Lemon can just fit in an offense as a slot receiver, when he actually is as versatile as it gets at the receiver position. His yards after the catch ability and his insane contested catch rate open the door for him to play more than just inside. If the Eagles move on from A.J. Brown, Makai Lemon falling right in Howie Roseman’s lap is as good as it may get for the Eagles in terms of a replacement. Makai Lemon and Devonta Smith will be exactly what Jalen Hurts needs to finally have that elite quarterback season.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 5, 2026, 7:44 a.m. PT With rumored player movements potentially happening during the NFL draft and after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[95878,25,7,6,2123,242,109,2476,98210,96358,97116,97895,95882,95930,97896,97645,97301,107935,95896,96758,95888,96683,95895,96681,98341,96680,96684,95906,96538,96191,96839,95883,98212,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-855896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-eagles","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","15":"tag-philadelphiaeagles","16":"tag-sstssportscollegetrojansfootball","17":"tag-sstsnfootball","18":"tag-tag2026-nfl-draft","19":"tag-taga-j-brown","20":"tag-tagamerican-football","21":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","22":"tag-tagdevonta-smith","23":"tag-taghowie-roseman","24":"tag-tagjalen-hurts","25":"tag-taglincoln-riley","26":"tag-tagnational-sports","27":"tag-tagncaa-big-ten-conference","28":"tag-tagnfl","29":"tag-tagnfl-draft","30":"tag-tagnfl-hub","31":"tag-tagnfl-junkies","32":"tag-tagnfl-mock-draft","33":"tag-tagnfl-overreactions","34":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","35":"tag-tagoverall-positive","36":"tag-tagphiladelphia","37":"tag-tagphiladelphia-eagles","38":"tag-tagsouthern-california-trojans-football","39":"tag-tagsports-news","40":"tag-tagusc-trojans","41":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}