ClutchPoints
For better or worse, the Philadelphia Eagles are a team built on star power.
Even after trading away AJ Brown and allowing Jaelan Phillips to leave in free agency, the Birds still employ 12 players who make at least $10 million a year in AAV, with a few more, like Cooper DeJean, Quinyon Mitchell, and Jalen Carter, all up next for premier market value contracts.
And yet, one of the reasons why the Eagles have remained among the best teams in the NFL during the Nick Sirianni era is because of how well Howie Roseman has stocked the cupboards not just for this season but for seasons to come.
Now granted, like every GM, Roseman has his misses, as he invested solid picks in players like Trevor Keegan, who never saw the field for the team, and will absolutely release a player or two from last year’s draft class this summer after already saying goodbye to Kyle McCord and Antwaun Powell-Ryland before throwing a single regular-season snap in 2025. Fortunately, when players like Jordan Mailata and Moro Ojomo go from seventh-round picks to starters after a few seasons of development, it helps to make up for those blunders.
So, with the Eagles’ top player locked in, and their bottom-of-the-roster guys still fighting for roster spots, who are the middle-of-the-road players who could jump into stardom in 2026 for a team in need of some fresh blood? Well, with about a third of the roster turned over from last year, there are plenty of players new and old-ish who could become household names in the City of Brotherly Love this fall if things shake out their way.
On paper, Makai Lemon is kind of already a star in the eyes of Philly fans. He’s the first wide receiver Roseman has taken in the first round since DeVonta Smith, and while he did fall in the draft a tad for one reason or another, he is unquestionably one of the best players in this year’s class, with highlights as good as any other rookie in 2026.
From a pedigree standpoint, Lemon is as good as they get. He’s a former wide receiver from USC, the WRU of the West Coast, and he has some very famous players in his corner, with one of the NFL’s best current players, Amon-Ra St. Brown, consistently gassing him up heading into the NFL.
Until Lemon actually produces at the NFL level, however, he is firmly in the star-in-the-making category and will need to actually put up numbers to rise into that Smith echelon.
Standing 5-foot-11, 192 pounds, Lemon is a sub-20th percentile in hand size, arm length, and wingspan, according to MockDraftables, and even though he didn’t run the 40-yard dash coming out of USC, it’s safe to assume he wouldn’t have been a 4.3 burner based on his tape and general style of player. But when Lemon is on the field, he looks like an absolute world beater, running routes at...
