Following his NFL debut, Makai Lemon’s first game with the Philadelphia Eagles drew headlines for the wrong reasons.
Despite getting several catches, Lemon ended the game with negative yards. It’s not every year that a wide receiver who didn’t get a chance to play on Sunday out-produced one who collected nearly 30 snaps.
A recent analysis of Lemon’s Sunday performance against the Washington Commanders in Week 1 suggests that the Eagles should be looking to use him differently in Week 2 against the Tennessee Titans.
Eagles Need To Make Changes
“Lemon was not billed as a twitchy gadget player coming out of USC and is probably better utilized working the middle of the field as a slot receiver tasked with finding soft spots against zone coverage,” PHLY’s EJ Smith wrote.
When it came to receiving, the Eagles clearly tried to get Lemon easy touches, giving him quick throws behind or at the line of scrimmage. With poor blocking, the plan backfired, and strongly contributed to Lemon’s bad production.
In addition to that, the Eagles relied on Lemon in the blocking game. While he received plenty of well-deserved praise for the block he had on Jalen Hurts’ massive first-down conversion in the fourth quarter, Lemon still had his fair share of struggles in that aspect as well.
“My general conclusion is that he’s still a work in progress doing most of the things the Eagles asked of him,” Smith added.
“He’s not going to consistently win against man coverage from the slot or the outside and probably shouldn’t be on the field quite as much on early downs. The best-case scenario right now is probably getting him the ball on underneath routes tied to play-action, something the Eagles didn’t utilize much against Washington.”
There was enough promise from Lemon that should tell the Eagles to continue utilizing the rookie in Week 2 against the Titans.
But the Eagles have to play to his strengths more if they want him to be a true contributor on Sundays.