RP Summer Lookback: Makai Lemon Goes to the Eagles

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is Reception Perception The Show, James D. Koh and Matt Harmon.

**Matt Harmon** (0:06)
The number two wide receiver, it's really interesting, isn't it, Matt?
Carnell Tate's widely considered the number one, Makai Lemon's widely considered the number two, and then it becomes this little bit of a hodgepodge mix down below. But Lemon is considered the consensus number two wide receiver here in this draft class. Let's see, Chad Reuters got a mock to 23 to Philadelphia. Would be interesting if they let go of AJ Brown. And then number 13 to the LA Rams, according to Daniel Jeremiah, and I believe Pete Prisco at CBS also has him going to the Rams. There seems to be a lot of smoke, Matt, in regards to the Rams selecting a wide receiver there at 13 And maybe if it is Makai, they do go out there and just nab him straight up.

**James D. Koh** (0:54)
Yeah, consensus board right now has Carnell Tate as like the ninth overall player in the draft, Makai Lemon 13th, Jordan Tyson 14th, and then it is kind of a little bit of a free for all there. I don't necessarily agree with that tiering and ranking of things, but yeah, I do think Lemon is certainly in the first tier of wide receivers in this class and somebody that I think, when we're measuring him against Carnell Tate, like what I said, Tate, I think, fits all 32 NFL offenses and could be the best version of himself pretty much anywhere depending on pass rates and volumes and quarterback and who else is in the receiver room and all that stuff. I do not think that is necessarily true for Makai Lemon, who I think could have a higher production ceiling than Carnell Tate, but does not fit all 32 NFL offenses because I think Makai Lemon is an awesome player.
There's a lot to like about his profile, but he is a guy who was mostly a slot receiver at USC throughout the course of his career. And I think we'll probably need to be slot mostly in the NFL, but I don't think he needs to be slot only. But we've seen this with guys, like some of the player comparisons that he's drawn, like Aman Rasayn Brown is not like a... And it's funny, I think he's even talked about comparing himself to Aman Rasayn Brown, which is smart, like same school.
I said this to one of my producers at Yahoo! When there was the whole thing about the whole combine riff-raff with him, where he was doing that head tilt thing at the podium. I was like, it felt like to me, I don't know if I've said this on this show, but you remember Dylan Riola, the quarterback that was doing the bad Mahomes cosplay, and it was so obvious. I think Makai Lemon at the combine was doing a little bit of Aman Rasayn Brown cosplay, it just went a little bit awry. When you do an impression, a parody of somebody, it tends to get a little exaggerated. That's what I thought he was going for a little bit, like that stare and intensity that St. Brown brings to the table. I feel like that's what he was trying to do, and it just, again, you do an impression of somebody and it goes a little awry.

**Matt Harmon** (3:02)
It felt like a combination of Aman Rasayn and Jalen Ramsey. A little bit of both of those guys.

**James D. Koh** (3:11)
Yeah, full flair, a little intensity, whatever, but I mean, who really, like no one cares. I mean, that does not matter, ultimately.

**Matt Harmon** (3:19)
It was a funny moment, though.

**James D. Koh** (3:21)
It was definitely funny, but it was like, I don't think, you know, the whole, he really turned off teams. I don't think so. I think they'll, yeah, no, don't worry. No weirdo has ever been a good NFL wide receiver before.
And I'm not even saying he is a weirdo. Like I said, to me, I thought he was, he's leaning into the St. Brown thing to be a little bit too hard, like Riola was leaning into the Patrick Holmes thing. But anyway, his point of that being that St. Brown has been kind of a slot, mostly not slot only player throughout the course of his career. And I do think Makai Lemon with time can go down that kind of path too. Like, by the way, talk about him being a slot player in the game, sampled for Reception Perception. He has 68.5% rate of snaps from the slot. You know, that's like really not that high.
I looked at the prospects that I've charted since 2021, who went in the first round and had a higher slot rate than that, or a slot rate over 68%. It was Emeka Ibuka last year, just under 74%. Jackson Smith and Jigba under 83%, just around under 83%. Traylon Burks, just over 68%. And Kadarius Tony, just under 77%. And I would say, without a doubt, who does he compare more to? Like, it's definitely the Ibuka JSN bucket, then the Burks, and certainly Kadarius Tony. God, it's so funny. Looking at the historical data for Reception Perception, that was just an abysmal pick by Dave Gettleman and the Giants. I mean, just like made no sense as a first rounder Kadarius. Even with Traylon Burks, I think there was probably a path for him to being a decent pro if he had been used as a big slot receiver and could stay healthy, and he was never used as a big slot receiver and he could never stay healthy. But my God, there was just no path to Kadarius Tony being a high and high volume receiver and the Giants took him in the first round anyways. Anyway, those are the guys that had comparable or even higher slot rates to him that went in the first round since 2021