Makai Lemon is a wide receiver from USC who is ranked No. 7 on my NFL Draft Top 100 Big Board. This comprehensive scouting report analyzes Lemon’s draft potential, current mock draft trends, and where he ranks among the top prospects.
To view where I rank other draft prospects heading into this week’s slate of college football games, visit my Week 9 Top 100 Big Board.
Makai Lemon’s NFL Draft Potential
Makai Lemon is a star of the 2025 college football season, and it feels inevitable that he’ll command early-to-mid first-round capital in the 2026 NFL Draft. Lemon — a former four-star recruit and Top 50 high school talent on the national stage — flashed promise through a 52-catch, 764-yard, three-touchdown sophomore season in 2024 — but he’s taken his game to an entirely different level in 2025.
Seven games into the season, Lemon has the fourth-highest PFSN CFB WRi rating with a score of 85. Even in an offense that includes potential early-round WR prospect Ja’Kobi Lane, Lemon has secured an almost 30% on-field target percentage.
He boasts a stellar 15.93% catch rate over expectation according to TruMedia, his 3.72 yards per route run is the highest mark among Top 100 WR prospects, and his 3.01 yards after catch over expectation is similarly impressive.
The stats tell you what you might expect: Lemon is one of the most complete three-level threats in the 2026 NFL Draft. Despite appearing relatively unassuming at a compact 5’11”, 195 pounds, Lemon is a shrewd catch-point controller with a mastery of late-hands timing, positioning, and body control adjustments.
He’s an explosive, energized mover who weaponizes his elite twitch and deceleration to both off-set and cut tight angles at route stems, and he has the vertical burst to stack. And after the catch, he can breeze and bruise through crowds with his combined evasiveness and size-defying play strength.
The question isn’t so much where Lemon will make his impact at the NFL level, but rather how to juxtapose him alongside Jordyn Tyson and Carnell Tate. Tyson and Tate both have more projectable profiles on the boundary as X and movement-Z receivers.
Lemon theoretically has the foot speed, twitch, and catch-point authority to beat press on the boundary, but alongside Lemon, a proportionally high amount of his reps come in the slot. That remains one of the few things Lemon has left to prove, however. He’s a weapon in the mold of Golden Tate, and he’s entering the NFL at the perfect time for his skill set.
Where Is Lemon Being Selected Most Often in the PFSN Mock Draft Simulator?
Lemon currently holds the No. 16 overall rank among prospects, placing him among the first-round caliber prospects. His most recent Average Draft Position (ADP) of 16.1 as of October 13 reflects that he is typically being selected in the first round.
This suggests he’s consistently valued among evaluators, even amid fluctuations in player evaluations at this stage of the draft cycle.
Users controlling the Denver Broncos have been the team that selected Lemon the most frequently over the past week, accounting for 1.1% of their picks across all seven rounds. Notably, 3.9% of the Denver Broncos’ first-round selections over that same period were used on Lemon, underscoring users’ strong preference for him as a potential immediate-impact wide receiver.
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Where Does Makai Lemon Rank Amongst Other NFL Draft Prospects?
Lemon is currently ranked No. 7 overall in my October 2026 NFL Draft Big Board. Among WR prospects, Lemon ranks 2nd at the position, trailing Jordyn Tyson. With a top-10 ranking, Lemon is considered one of the elite prospects in the 2026 class.
Want to see how we rank all the draft prospects in the PFSN Mock Draft Simulator? Check out our NFL Draft Prospect Rankings page, which includes more than 750 prospects.
