{"id":873268,"date":"2026-04-24T03:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873268\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:37:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:37:01","slug":"eagles-draft-makai-lemon-fantasy-football-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873268\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles draft Makai Lemon: Fantasy Football fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia receiving corps will look different this season, as the Eagles<\/a> added potentially their new No. 1 weapon in the passing game during the NFL Draft<\/a> on Thursday night. Philadelphia traded up with Dallas to No. 20 overall in the first round and selected USC’s Makai Lemon, who should replace A.J. Brown<\/a> once he is eventually traded.<\/p>\n

The Eagles are expected to trade Brown after June 1 because of his contract, and the Patriots<\/a> are reportedly the front-runner to acquire him. We’ll address that trade once it happens.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Philadelphia gave Dallas pick No. 23 overall in Round 1 and two fourth-rounders (114 and 137) for No. 20 overall and a Round 7 pick. The Eagles got a potential steal in Lemon, who could be the No. 1 receiver in this draft class.<\/p>\n

Lemon is the fourth receiver Philadelphia has acquired this offseason along with Hollywood Brown, Elijah Moore<\/a> and Dontayvion Wicks<\/a>. Once A.J. Brown is traded, that group will compete with DeVonta Smith<\/a> to be the No. 1 target for quarterback Jalen Hurts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I like Smith the best of the bunch, and he should be considered a high-end No. 2 Fantasy receiver worth drafting as early as Round 4. Smith has the best rapport with Hurts, and he should lead the Eagles in targets in 2026.<\/p>\n

But Lemon could challenge Smith for the top spot, and he has the chance to be the best rookie Fantasy receiver this year. In rookie-only drafts for dynasty leagues, Lemon should be considered a top-five overall pick. And he’s worth drafting as early as Round 6 in redraft formats.<\/p>\n

At USC, Lemon was a star in 2025 with 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns, and he won the Biletnikoff Award as the best receiver in college football<\/a>. He is a great route runner, who is dangerous after the catch, and it’s easy to compare him to another USC great in Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s going to be fun to see how the Eagles deploy Smith and Lemon, but both should soak up targets. Brown led Philadelphia in targets last season with 121 — Smith was second with 113 — and we’ll see how Lemon fits in along with Marquise Brown<\/a>, Wicks and Moore.<\/p>\n

By adding Lemon, those other guys should be secondary options, and Dallas Goedert<\/a> and Saquon Barkley<\/a> will also be involved in the passing game. Remember, the Eagles also have a new offensive coordinator this season in Sean Mannion, and he has a new toy to use in Lemon.<\/p>\n

Hurts will miss having A.J. Brown this season, but adding Lemon is a good consolation prize. Hurts remains a borderline top-five Fantasy quarterback in all leagues.<\/p>\n

The Eagles did well to get Lemon, and he ended up in a great spot in Philadelphia. This was a great move for Fantasy managers that Lemon went to the Eagles at No. 20 overall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia receiving corps will look different this season, as the Eagles added potentially their new No. 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[8694,4566,3395,5640,3992,25,6084,1999,7,1519,492,58,34748,5410,32,249,109,1088,894,17,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-873268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-a-j-brown","9":"tag-amon-ra-st-brown","10":"tag-dallas-goedert","11":"tag-devonta-smith","12":"tag-dontayvion-wicks","13":"tag-eagles","14":"tag-elijah-moore","15":"tag-fantasy-football","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-j-j-mccarthy","18":"tag-jalen-hurts","19":"tag-los-angeles-rams","20":"tag-makai-lemon","21":"tag-marquise-brown","22":"tag-matthew-stafford","23":"tag-new-england-patriots","24":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","25":"tag-puka-nacua","26":"tag-saquon-barkley","27":"tag-shedeur-sanders","28":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116457599385798997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873268","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=873268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}