{"id":873419,"date":"2026-04-24T10:21:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873419\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:21:32","slug":"2026-nfl-draft-eagles-traded-up-for-makai-lemon-while-he-was-on-phone-with-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873419\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft: Eagles traded up for Makai Lemon while he was on phone with Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a plan to use the No. 21 overall pick in Round 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> on USC<\/a> wide receiver Makai Lemon<\/a>. In fact, Pittsburgh was on the phone with him just before they were on the clock, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But then, the Philadelphia Eagles made a trade with the Dallas Cowboys to acquire the No. 20 overall pick. The Eagles moved up three spots to take Lemon, putting an end to Pittsburgh\u2019s pursuit of the 21-year-old wideout. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dallas Cowboys were on the clock at 20 with everyone knowing they were going defense. The Pittsburgh Steelers get on the phone with Makai Lemon, planning to select him next at 21,\u201d Rapoport said. \u201cExcept what they didn\u2019t know is the Eagles had actually traded up over them and were trying to get in touch with Lemon, but he wasn\u2019t answering because he was already on the phone with the Steelers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers were looking to pair Lemon with DK Metcalf<\/a> and Michael Pittman Jr.<\/a> Now, he\u2019ll slot in alongside DeVonta Smith<\/a> and perhaps A.J. Brown<\/a>, who continues to be subject to trade rumors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like everything happened for a reason,\u201d Lemon said. \u201cThey traded up so it means a lot that they really wanted me. I\u2019m all in and they\u2019re going to get everything that I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makai Lemon put up big numbers at USC<\/p>\n

There was no better receiver in college football this past season than Lemon. He won the Biletnikoff Award after putting up gaudy numbers during the 2025 season, hauling in 79 passes for 1,156 yards, and 11 touchdowns. This was Lemon\u2019s third season in Lincoln Riley<\/a>\u2019s system, finally breaking out on the national stage.<\/p>\n

In 12 games played the previous season, Lemon went for 764 yards on 52 receptions. Lemon had three touchdowns in 2024.<\/p>\n

Lemon was one of five wide receivers selected in the first round on Thursday. The others were Carnell Tate<\/a>, Jordyn Tyson<\/a>, KC Concepcion<\/a>, and Omar Cooper Jr.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers had a plan to use the No. 21 overall pick in Round 1 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,7,11876,6,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-873419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-makai-lemon-23-los-alamitos","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","14":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116459190872427434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873419","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=873419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}