The thing that stands out most to everyone about Makai Lemon

Makai Lemon isn’t quite 6 feet tall. He’s not 200 pounds. He doesn’t run a 4.30. Based on his measurables, you wouldn’t expect Lemon to be one of the top players in the 2026 draft.

But then you actually watch him play.

And as Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said, Lemon’s competitiveness “just kind of oozed off of his tape.”

The Eagles on Thursday night, traded up three spots from 23 to 20 to draft the Biletnikoff Award winner and the first thing they talked about was his competitive nature. There’s a ton of other things the Eagles like about Lemon but there’s probably a reason this comes up a bunch. Sirianni said Lemon is “insanely competitive.”

“He plays the game with a chip on his shoulder,” USC WRs coach/co-OC Dennis Simmons said just after boarding his flight home from the draft in Pittsburgh. 

“I think that comes from his competitive edge. His motto is, ‘I’m going to make the throw right. I’m going to make the quarterback right.’ So when the ball is in the air, it’s my job to catch it no matter where he puts it. I think that’s one of those things, he becomes … very quarterback friendly. He becomes like the guy in the park throwing the stick out to his dog. That dog is always going to go up and get it and bring it back to you.”

And shortly after the Eagles drafted Lemon on Thursday night, Lemon in a national interview had a message for Eagles fans: “They’re gettin’ a dawg.”

The Eagles think so too. They’re banking on it.

What does it take to be an undersized receiver who plays bigger?

“I think it’s just the mentality and the heart that you play with,” Lemon said at his introductory press conference on Friday. “The body type, you can get fooled by that. Your heart and your mentality that you approach to the game can take you a lot farther than just your height and your size.”

On Thursday night, general manager Howie Roseman shared the details of a play that really caught their eyes. It came at the end of Lemon’s freshman season at USC in the Trojans’ Holiday Bowl win over Louisville.

The Trojans were already up two touchdowns and marched inside the 10-yard line when Miller Moss threw an interception. Lemon was on the other side of the field but ran down the defensive back for a tackle.

“Highly competitive,” Sirianni said. “And I think sometimes with wide receivers, you see clips like the one where he chases the guy down after an interception or the way that he blocks just for his teammates and to help his teammates. 

“A guy that is competitive is not only competitive when the ball is coming to him but he’s competitive in all situations. That’s hard to turn off. When there is an opportunity for him to go out there and get a block for his running back on a running play or chase a guy down after an interception, you can’t turn that off.”

Simmons remembers that play but brought up another element to highlight Lemon’s competitiveness. In his freshman season, Lemon began the year as a receiver but USC suffered several injuries in their secondary and Lemon flipped sides of the ball to defensive back for most of his first college season.

That bowl game was his first game back at receiver. In addition to that hustle play, Lemon also caught 2 passes for 75 yards in the 42-28 win.

The next season, Lemon led the Trojans with 764 yards in 2024 and then he had a huge 2025 season with 79 catches, for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also returned kicks and punts. He’s an all-around football player.

After drafting Lemon on Thursday night, Roseman and Sirianni rattled off a laundry list of the reasons they liked him so much:

Lemon didn’t run the 40-yard dash at the Combine and his time at the USC pro day wasn’t elite. He ran somewhere in the 4.48-5.3 range. But as Simmons pointed out, plenty of great receivers — including the GOAT, Jerry Rice — didn’t put up crazy 40s.

“A 40 time is great,” Simmons said, “but if you can get in and out of your cuts and you play at the same tempo in the fourth quarter and in overtime as you play in the beginning of the game, that 40 time kind of negates himself. That’s what ‘Kai is.”

Before joining the USC staff in 2022, Simmons spent seven seasons (2015-21) at Oklahoma, which means he was on the staff when Jalen Hurts played for the Sooners in 2019.

Simmonds on Friday compared Lemon’s seriousness about the game to what he witnessed from Hurts back then. He thinks Lemon is going to fit right in.

“They’re going to get a person that’s dedicated and is going to put 100 percent into everything that he’s doing,” Simmons said. “He’s going to be detailed in his craft and detailed in all his assignments. They’re getting a competitor.”

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