Receiver, USC, 2023–25
Makai Lemon
- Number
- No. 6
- Height
- 5′11″
- Weight
- 195 lb
- Class (2025)
- Junior
- Hometown
- Los Alamitos, CA
- Born
- Jun 2, 2004
Wikipedia readers: about 21,043 a month over the past year
Makai Lemon played receiver at USC (2023–25). He won the 2025 Biletnikoff Award. He was a consensus All‑American in 2025. The Philadelphia Eagles took Lemon in the first round, No. 20 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
At a glance
Career highs
11catches, career hightwice; last vs. Northwestern, 2025161receiving yards, career highvs. Northwestern, 20252receiving touchdowns, career highthree times; last at Oregon, 2025Honors
- 2025Biletnikoff Award
- 2025Polynesian College Football Player of the Year
- 2025Consensus All‑American
- 2025First-team All-Big Ten
Players of the year, conference and regional honors: Wikipedia’s lists (CC BY-SA), each linked from its honor.
Receiving
Returns
Season lines from CollegeFootballData, regular season and bowls. A dash: the source has no number for that season (often an FCS season), and career totals count only the numbers on file.
On the roster
As each season’s roster listed the player (CollegeFootballData). Classes before the latest listing are counted back from it; “Yr 1” is the year on file where that count can’t place a season he played (a redshirt, transfer or 2020 year); height and weight as last listed.
Per play
| Season | Team | Plays | EPA/play | Pctile | Median | Total | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | USC | 7 | 0.60 | – | – | 4.2 | – |
| 2024 | USC | 56 | 1.00 | 61st (n=581) | 0.92 | 56.1 | 8% |
| 2025 | USC | 115 | 0.66 | 81st (n=1040) | 0.46 | 75.4 | 15% |
Expected points added: how much the player’s plays moved the team’s expected score, per play and in total. Plays: total EPA divided by EPA per play, the plays the source credits to him (for a receiver roughly his catches and runs, not every target; for a passer, not every attempt), so it can differ from attempts plus carries. Percentile: against the position’s regulars that season across all divisions on file (quarterbacks with 150+ plays, backs 60+, receivers and tight ends 30+), with how many there were (n) and their median; a dash means too few plays to rank. A season in progress uses the full-season bar scaled by games played, never below 75 plays for quarterbacks, 30 for backs and 20 for receivers. The cohort grows or shrinks with the source’s coverage each season (2025 lists far more players), so compare percentiles rather than raw EPA across years. FCS seasons are marked. Usage: the share of the team’s plays the player was part of (shown from 20 plays). From CollegeFootballData, 2013 on.
Game by game
2025 USC 12 games, 79 catches, 1,156 yards, 11 TD
| Date | Opponent | Result | Rec | Rec yds | Rec TD | KR | Yds | PR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 30 | vs. Missouri State | W 73–13 | 7 | 90 | 0 | 2 | 43 | – |
| Sep 6 | vs. Georgia Southern | W 59–20 | 4 | 158 | 2 | 1 | 21 | – |
| Sep 13 | at Purdue | W 33–17 | 5 | 63 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 1 |
| Sep 20 | vs. Michigan State | W 45–31 | 8 | 127 | 1 | 3 | 64 | 1 |
| Sep 27 | at Illinois | L 32–34 | 11 | 151 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Oct 11 | vs. Michigan | W 31–13 | 9 | 93 | 1 | – | – | 2 |
| Oct 18 | at Notre Dame | L 24–34 | 4 | 76 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Nov 1 | at Nebraska | W 21–17 | 2 | 18 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Nov 7 | vs. Northwestern | W 38–17 | 11 | 161 | 1 | – | – | – |
| Nov 15 | vs. Iowa | W 26–21 | 10 | 153 | 1 | – | – | – |
| Nov 22 | at Oregon | L 27–42 | 7 | 34 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Nov 29 | vs. UCLA | W 29–10 | 1 | 32 | 1 | – | – | 1 |
2024 USC 11 games, 52 catches, 764 yards, 3 TD
| Date | Opponent | Result | Rec | Rec yds | Rec TD | KR | Yds | PR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1 | vs. LSU | W 27–20 | 1 | 22 | 0 | 1 | 8 | – |
| Sep 7 | vs. Utah State | W 48–0 | 3 | 23 | 1 | – | – | – |
| Oct 5 | at Minnesota | L 17–24 | 3 | 37 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Oct 12 | vs. Penn State | L 30–33 | 6 | 73 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Oct 19 | at Maryland | L 28–29 | 8 | 89 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Oct 25 | vs. Rutgers | W 42–20 | 4 | 134 | 1 | 3 | 122 | – |
| Nov 2 | at Washington | L 21–26 | 8 | 70 | 1 | 4 | 101 | – |
| Nov 16 | vs.Nebraska | W 28–20 | 2 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 32 | – |
| Nov 23 | atUCLA | W 19–13 | 2 | 69 | 0 | 3 | 88 | – |
| Nov 30 | vs.Notre Dame | L 35–49 | 9 | 133 | 0 | 6 | 117 | – |
| Dec 27 ✦ | vs. Texas A&M | W 35–31 | 6 | 99 | 0 | 1 | 46 | – |
2023 USC 5 games, 5 returns, 94 yards
| Date | Opponent | Result | Rec | Rec yds | Rec TD | KR | Yds | PR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 26 | vs. San José State | W 56–28 | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Sep 2 | vs. Nevada | W 66–14 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 13 | – |
| Sep 30 | at Colorado | W 48–41 | – | – | – | 2 | 44 | – |
| Oct 7 | vs. Arizona | W 43–41 | – | – | – | 2 | 37 | – |
| Dec 27 ✦ | vs. Louisville | W 42–28 | 2 | 75 | 0 | – | – | – |
Box scores from CollegeFootballData, 2004 on. ✦ postseason; ★ a career high on file.
Before the draft
| Drill | Combine 2026 | Combine or pro day 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 5′11⅛″ | |
| Weight | 192 lb | |
| Arm length | 30½″ | |
| Hand size | 8¾″ | |
| Wingspan | 73¼″ | |
| 40-yard dash | 4.46 s | |
| 10-yard split | 1.59 sW |
Combine or pro day: the source doesn’t say which. Unmarked: Combine and pro day results compiled by array-carpenter (nfl-draft-data); W: Pre-draft measurables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
In the NFL
1 season, 5 games with a stat; latest team: Philadelphia Eagles.
| Season | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | Philadelphia Eagles | 5 | 15 | 108 | 0 |
Regular seasons, from nflverse (CC BY 4.0). G counts games in which the player recorded a stat.
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