Late Phone Call Delivers Receiver To Eagles, Not Steelers, In Draft

Makai Lemon was nearly drafted by the Steelers until Howie Roseman's call got through while the the receiver was on the phone with Pittsburgh, which was poised to take him.

Apr 23, 2026; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Southern California Trojans receiver Makai Lemon is selected by the Philadelphia Eagles as the number 20 pick during the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Makai Lemon was on the phone with the Steelers. He thought Pittsburgh was going to be his next home. Except his phone wouldn’t stop ringing with another caller trying to get through.

Turned out, it was the Eagles calling to tell him they had traded up one spot ahead of the NFL Draft’s hosts to select the USC product with the 20th overall pick on Thursday night.

“First, I answered the phone, and it was the Steelers, then my phone kept ringing,” said Lemon on a Zoom call shortly after being selected. “I looked, and it was the Eagles. They traded up and said they were gonna pick me. I feel like everything happened for a reason. They traded up, so it means a lot that they really want me. I’m all in, and they’re going to get everything I got.”

The Eagles are getting the better of Pittsburgh on the ice, with the Flyers leading the Penguins 3-0 in their best-of-seven playoff thriller, so why not on the football field, too?

“I had a meeting with them at the Combine then I had a top 30 visit with them,” said the receiver. “Everything went great. It was super genuine. It was great vibes, so I’m definitely blessed to be here.”

Howie Roseman Explains Move To Take Makai Lemon

Eagles GM Howie Roseman (left) and head coach Nick Sirianni met with reporters after selecting Makai Lemon in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. | Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

General manager Howie Roseman said that it doesn’t usually happen the way it did, with the Steelers already telling Lemon they were going to take him, but he had a hard time reaching his target.

“When we get on the clock, we immediately try to contact the player,” said Roseman. “It took us a couple minutes to contact the player and get him on the phone. That hasn’t happened very often. The clock got down a little bit lower than we would’ve liked, but we were able to get in touch with him and obviously select him.”

The Eagles moved up three spots, going from their original pick at No. 23, to No. 20, sending both their fourth-round picks (Nos. 114 and 137) to their NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys to make the leap. Dallas sent a seventh-round pick to Philly in next year’s draft.

Roseman said that in several of his staff’s mock drafts and preparations leading up to the draft, Lemon was gone by No. 16.

“We just felt this was player we wanted to go up and get based on where our board was at that time, where we were picking,” said the GM. “It just felt like it made a lot of sense based on our board. Obviously, when you have a player you liked that’s ranked higher on your board than where you’re picking, you’re thinking every pick that he’s gonna be selected.

“That’s just the way the draft is. You think everyone’s thinking the way you are. Certainly, for us, we didn’t want to sit on our hands. We wanted to go get him. That’s why we made the trade.”

It was the eighth trade up in the first round in the last 11 drafts for Roseman.

As for the Steelers, they used the very next pick on Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor, a player who had been linked to the Eagles in several mock drafts. It will be a few years before we see who made the right call.