Makai Lemon — Week 1: Three Catches for Minus Five Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Lemon was thrown to four times in his first regular-season game, the same as Dontayvion Wicks, and caught three for minus five yards — three, minus five and minus three — with no first downs. His four targets were worth minus three point nine expected points, the lowest figure for any Eagle who was thrown to, in a 24–22 win over the Commanders.
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Makai Lemon's first regular-season catch went for three yards, and the next two went backwards. Second and 11 at the Philadelphia 45, nine 23 left in the first quarter, Eagles down three to nothing: short left, three yards, pushed out of bounds at the 48, −0.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position. On the next possession, first and 19 at the Philadelphia 30 with seven oh seven left, short right, caught five yards behind the line and tackled at the 25: −1.1 expected points and −2.6 points of win probability, the chance of winning after the play against before it, the costliest of his four targets by win probability. DeVonta Smith got 12 back on the next snap, and Jalen Hurts was sacked on the third down after that.
Four targets, three catches, −5 yards, no first downs, −3.9 expected points on the targets, the lowest figure for any Eagle who was thrown to. The fourth target was the worst by expected points: second and 11 at the Philadelphia 25 with 14 13 left in the third, short left, −3 to the 22, −1.5; Dallas Goedert got 12 of the 14 back on the next snap and Philadelphia punted. The one incompletion was second and six at the Philadelphia 31 with 12 20 left in the half, short left; Hurts's third-down throw went deep right to Dontayvion Wicks and fell incomplete, and Philadelphia punted. Three targets before halftime, one after. None on third down. The four throws total zero air yards, and three yards after the catch.
Six throws went to Smith, five to Goedert, four each to Wicks and Lemon, two to Saquon Barkley, one to Will Shipley, and three carry no receiver. Lemon's three catches tied Smith for second on the team behind Goedert's four; his −5 receiving yards were last among the six Eagles thrown to, behind Barkley's −3. Wicks, the other four-target receiver, had 73 yards and a touchdown on two catches. Elijah Moore was inactive, per PhiladelphiaEagles.com, and no wide receiver other than Smith, Wicks and Lemon was thrown to.
Back in June the preview would not cross the line on Lemon — the twentieth pick, Philadelphia having sent a first and two fourths to move up three spots for him, a Biletnikoff season at USC, the slot job with the starters in spring, priced at pick 92 — and it said capital and vacated targets do not predict rookie production, and that it would grade what happened, in October. This is the first game to grade: four targets, as many as Wicks, and −5 yards. The targets are the encouraging half; the yards are one game's worth of short throws that went nowhere, and the preview's own question, whether the job was his alone or a Wicks split, reads on Sunday as four and four. Philadelphia is at the Titans on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Makai Lemon's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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