Image 1: WR Makai Lemon (6) making a play as a ball carrier
Height: 5’11
Weight: 195
Position: WR
Year: Junior
Background
Image 2: WR Makai Lemon (14) during his final season with Los Alamitos High School
Born on June 2, 2004, Makai Lemon was a four-star WR prospect in the class of 2023 coming out of Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California. Playing alongside Five-Star QB prospect Malachi Nelson, the duo of Lemon and Nelson would receive a lot of recruiting buzz, with both receiving All-American and Polynesian Bowl invites. With the intention to play together in college, Nelson and Lemon would initially commit to Oklahoma to play for offensive guru Lincoln Riley. After Riley left Oklahoma for USC, Nelson and Lemon switched their commitments to USC.
As a Trojan, Lemon saw limited playing time as a true freshman, taking rotational snaps at WR and CB due to injuries. While Nelson would transfer to Boise State after redshirting, Lemon decided to stay at USC, where he was projected to be a full-time starter. Despite 2024 being a disappointing season for USC, Lemon broke out by leading the team in receiving yards and earning Third-Team All-Big Ten Honors. Entering 2025, Lemon has continued to elevate his game and is one of the top WR prospects in the 2026 NFL draft.
Athletic Tools
A shorter player with a filled out frame, Makai Lemon isn’t going to impress teams with his physical measurements. While not a twitchy athlete, Lemon has solid contact balance, acceleration, and quickness that allows him to make pays in open space. Beyond acceleration and lateral quickness, Lemon has elite deceleration ability which allows him to dominate on hitch, curls, and comebacks. Additionally, Lemon has great coordination and body control to make catches in traffic and keep his feet in bounds. Beyond what he does with the ball in his hands or when targeted, Lemon is a capable blocker who can be aligned tighter in formation to contribute in the run game.
Video 1: WR Makai Lemon (6) uses his acceleration and quickness to generate an explosive RAC play on a screen touch
Video 2: WR Makai Lemon (6) quickly decelerates at the stem of the stick route and breaks to the boundary after reading that the CB is playing man coverage
Video 3: WR Makai Lemon (6) decelerates after the CB opens his hips when running a curl route to get a catch that gets USC out of the redzone
Video 4: WR Makai Lemon (6) fails to fake out the defender at the stem, but makes a difficult catch in traffic for the touchdown
Video 5: WR Makai Lemon (6) lacks the speed to separate on the fade route, but makes a difficult catch in traffic by tracking the ball and contorting his body
Video 6: WR Makai Lemon (6) makes a gutsy block on the LB when QB Jayden Maiava keeps the ball on the option play
Overall, Lemon is a relatively unspectacular tools prospect. With average top-speed and poor length, Lemon has moments on tape where longer, physical defenders are able to disrupt him off the line and down the line. As a result, Lemon has difficulty attempting to stack taller, faster corners when aligned on the boundary. While far from a poor athlete, Lemon lacks the physical tools typically seen in true WR1s and could have him be seen as a slot-only receiver at the next level.
Video 7: WR Makai Lemon (6) attempts to release off the line, but fails to get separation vertically on the go route because he is facing a longer, bigger defender
Video 8: WR Makai Lemon (6) struggles to release outside and the CB easily stays in phase during the entire snap
Video 9: WR Makai Lemon (6) gets pressed off the line and unable to keep up with the timing of the route concept
Technicals
While he may not stand out athletically, Lemon is exceptional technically. A true separator on all three levels, Lemon primarily runs hitches, flats, curls, fades, corners, and posts for USC. While this is relatively route tree, Lemon has flashed effectiveness on in-breaking concepts like digs which should allow Lemon to handle a full NFL route tree. Lemon’s combination of quickness and deceleration allow him to dominate as a separator by giving him sudden change-of-direction ability. Though worse when on the boundary, Lemon is effective at releasing off the line to beat press coverage. Paired with his effectiveness at settling in zone coverage and route salesmanship, Lemon has every skill you need to be a one-on-one man coverage beater. Beyond his refinement as a route runner, Makai Lemon has impressive ball skills. By constantly attacking the ball in the air, rarely dropping the ball, and getting open when in scramble drill, Lemon is an incredibly reliable target on all areas of the field.
Video 10: WR Makai Lemon (6) frying the S for a touchdown with a clean break and good long speed on the post route
Video 11: WR Makai Lemon (6) showcasing the ability to attack the intermediate area of the field with a textbook dig route
Video 12: WR Makai Lemon (6) gets off the line when aligned in the slot and breaks off an explosive YAC play
Video 13: WR Makai Lemon (6) runs a sluggo and adjusts to the ball when he’s in the soft spot of the defense’s zone coverage
Video 14: WR Makai Lemon (6) settling in the soft spot of the zone coverage to create an easy throw for his QB Jayden Maiava (4)
Video 15: WR Makai Lemon (6) actively finding open space in USC’s scramble drill to create a throw when QB Jayden Maiava breaks the sack
Image 3: WR Makai Lemon‘s route tree during the 2025 season as of 10/30/2025
As a ball carrier, Lemon has good vision to take smart angles that make defenders miss. However, I do not believe a lot of this RAC/YAC ability is translatable to the NFL. Though I believe his vision and quickness will always let him be effective, Lemon lack of play strength, physicality, and size limits his effectiveness to break tackles. In addition, Lemon’s ridiculous production after the catch comes from a high volume of screen targets that Lemon will not receive at the same volume in the NFL (USC in 2025 has a screen rate of 23%, while the NFL in 2024 had a screen of 10%).
Video 16: WR Makai Lemon (6) quickly being tackled when the defender takes a good angle
Draft Projection
Makai Lemon currently has a second-round grade. Though this is lower than his current consensus rankings, Lemon’s physical limitations and difficulty with physical coverage likely prevent him from being a true WR1 for an offense (I define this as a player who can take on a 3-level target-heavy receiving role). Despite me being lower on him, Lemon is still a very good prospect as his ball skills, route running, and RAC/YAC ability will make him an immediate, productive contributor even if he lacks the physical upside to become one of the premier WRs in the NFL.
Athletic Testing
Will be updated after the NFL Combine/USC Pro Day
Pro Comparison
Image 4: WR Sterling Shepard (17) during his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
With both being similarly built slot receivers who rely more on their technical ability over raw athleticism, Makai Lemon reminds me a lot of Sterling Shepard. Although his career was derailed with a series of injuries, Shepard, when he was younger and healthier, was a good second option to Odell Beckham Jr for the New York Giants. Even though he was a smaller, average athlete who did not handle physical coverage well, Shepard used his route running, zone IQ, and ball skills to play his role as a good slot/Z receiver who worked as a good complementary piece to a true WR1. I believe Lemon can be a very similar player (hopefully with a better bill of health).
Date Published: 10/30/2025
Date Last Updated: 10/30/2025