The best fantasy moves do not always happen at the draft table. Some players are worth more as a November trade target than an August pick, because the price drops before the role picks up. A rookie receiver stuck in a committee is the cleanest example of that gap.
Do not spend a pick on Makai Lemon. Let someone else draft the Eagles rookie, watch the slow start most first-year receivers go through, and trade for him cheap around midseason. That is the plan PFN’s Kyle Soppe laid out. After digging into the depth chart, it is the right one.
Why Makai Lemon Is a Risky Redraft Pick
Lemon went 20th overall and won the Biletnikoff Award at USC, so the talent is not the question. The Year 1 fantasy setup is. With A.J. Brown traded to New England, DeVonta Smith steps in as the clear WR1, and he does it inside a low-volume passing attack built around Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, which leaves a smaller pile of targets to go around. Dallas Goedert, Hollywood Brown, and Dontayvion Wicks are in that queue too.
Behind Smith, Lemon is not even the presumed No. 2. Wicks looks likely to open the season ahead of him, since the Eagles handed Wicks an extension and he already knows new coordinator Sean Mannion’s system from their time together in Green Bay. Lemon projects to open in a part-time slot role. The job is not settled, and some expect Lemon to win it outright, but the early edge belongs to the veteran who fits the scheme and just got paid.
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That is the problem with the price. Lemon is going around the seventh round, roughly WR36 on Underdog, which is a part-time rookie at a fantasy starter’s cost. Pass.
Why Makai Lemon Is a Buy-Low Trade Target for the Fantasy Playoffs
Here is where Soppe’s case lands, and I am with him. He wrote that Lemon’s “breakout could be a slow build,” and said he plans to float buy-low offers once the Eagles clear their Week 10 bye. The reasoning holds up.
Rookie receivers tend to come on late, after the playbook slows down and the reps stack up, and Soppe puts Lemon in the bucket of high-pedigree rookies who develop on the fly. A polished slot man in a productive offense is exactly the profile that tends to click in the second half, once the target share catches up to the talent.
The schedule sweetens it. Lemon’s fantasy playoff slate runs against the Seahawks, the Texans, and the 49ers. Soppe notes that Seattle’s Devon Witherspoon and Houston’s Derek Stingley Jr. will be occupied with DeVonta Smith in Weeks 15 and 16, which could leave Lemon working softer coverage out of the slot.
The exposure is worth having. Just get it at the discount. If Lemon’s manager spent a seventh-rounder and then watched him post nothing through October, the buy-low window opens right around that Week 10 bye.
Skip Lemon on draft day and let the committee do the scaring for you. Track his snap share and where he lines up through the first two months, then make the offer when the price bottoms out. Get the timing right and you are buying a rising rookie for pennies with the fantasy playoffs in view.
