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By Andrew Gould
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Makai Lemon had a rocky NFL debut for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The rookie wide receiver caught three of his four targets but lost five yards in Sunday's 24-22 win over the Washington Commanders. A former Pro Bowl wideout raised a concern about Lemon.
T.J. Houshmandzadeh claimed on the Speakeasy podcast that the Eagles used the No. 20 pick on Lemon for "no reason" after acquiring Dontayvion Wicks from the Green Bay Packers.
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"I'm not going to call him a bust, but the Eagles should be worried because you have to design plays for him," Houshmandzadeh said. "I got to design plays for DeVonta Smith. I got to design plays for Saquon Barkley. I'm not designing plays for a rookie receiver. I need you to get out there, get on the outside, and get open and win. And so, it's a concern."
Houshmandzadeh also thinks Lemon is a poor schematic fit for the Eagles, who like to run the football and often heavily target one or two pass-catchers.
"If he's on a different team, he plays better," Houshmandzadeh said. "But the Eagles, it's gonna come off as if he can't play."
The Eagles haven't lost faith in Lemon after one poor game. Head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters Monday that the 22-year-old made his mark off the ball in Week 1.
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"There's a lot of things that Makai did in that game that don't reflect on the stat sheet," Sirianni said, per NJ.com's Cayden Steele. "We constantly talk about that. What are you doing to help this team win the game? Particularly if you're a skill guy that might not be able to be seen in a stat book or to the naked eye. He's always done a good job since he's been here of blocking, doing the right things, being in the right spots. Obviously, the ones that went to him yesterday didn't equal out to be big yardage gains, but he did little things to help us win the football game that sometimes are unseen and unnoticed.
"Why that's really important is while a young player is continuing to get used to the NFL and being able to make an impact, you have to trust that player. We trust him because he's constantly doing the things without the ball that we need to help us win and that we know is going to help us win. That just builds confidence and allows players to develop."
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