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First-round wide receiver Makai Lemon says he’s back to 100% for training camp after a hamstring injury.
Makai Lemon is healthy, and the Philadelphia Eagles needed to hear it. The first-round wide receiver told the Philadelphia Inquirer over the weekend that he’s fully recovered from the hamstring injury that cost him the final stretch of OTAs, and he expects to be a full participant when training camp opens. For an Eagles' offense undergoing a significant transformation after the A.J. Brown trade, Lemon’s availability could be the most important development of the summer.
Now, we’ve seen rookies miss time and still hit the ground running. Cooper DeJean missed all of training camp and the first four games of the 2024 season, then came back and played like a 10-year veteran. Some guys are just wired that way. But banking on that kind of outlier scenario with Lemon would be reckless given how much Philadelphia needs from him right away.
The expectations are enormous
Think about the situation Lemon is walking into. The Eagles traded A.J. Brown this offseason, and whether you agree with that decision or not, the reality is clear: there’s a mountain of expectations waiting for this kid on Day 1. I don’t think that’s entirely fair to a rookie, and DeVonta Smith is going to have to step up and lead this receiving group. But Lemon was drafted in the first round for a reason. Philadelphia didn’t select him to catch one pass a game and ride the bench. He’s going to have a significant role in this offense from the jump.
That’s exactly why his health matters so much right now. Getting every rep at training camp, building chemistry with Jalen Hurts, bonding with teammates, going through the full process with the coaching staff, all of it accelerates his development. Missing that time would have put him behind before the season even started.
When the hamstring injury first popped up during OTAs, there wasn’t a ton of information available, and honestly, it felt like the kind of thing that could linger. Hamstring injuries are tricky for speed guys, and Lemon is absolutely a speed guy. Those few clips that leaked out of OTAs showed a different kind of quickness. The burst was real. So hearing that he’s feeling great and back to full health is genuinely exciting.
One of the must-watch players at camp
Lemon should be one of the top three to five players to watch when the Eagles open training camp. We need to see how he looks in a full practice setting, how he handles the volume of reps, and how he fits into what the coaching staff is building offensively. The small sample from OTAs was tantalizing, but camp is where the real evaluation begins.
The 21-year-old sounds like he’s approaching it the right way, too. Lemon told the Inquirer he’s focused on learning from the veterans around him.
“Just know how to take care of your body, how to attack your preparation," Lemon said. "Every little thing the guys do, I’m watching closely. I feel like I can learn so much from those boys.”
That’s the mentality you want from a rookie stepping into a high-pressure situation. Philadelphia is asking him to be a core piece of a retooled offense, and he seems to understand the weight of that without being crushed by it.
The biggest thing now is staying healthy through the grind of camp. You just have to hope he doesn’t go out there and tweak the hamstring again, because any setback would eat into the developmental runway he desperately needs. If Lemon can stay on the field and stack good days together, the Eagles might have themselves a legitimate weapon opposite Smith sooner than most people expect.
This is the pick the front office made when it decided to move on from Brown. This is the bet. And right now, all signs point to Lemon being ready to prove it was the right one.
This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: Eagles receive the perfect injury update at exactly the right time before training camp
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