The Philadelphia Eagles took a first-round wide receiver, a second-round tight end, and a fifth-round quarterback. While the Eagles certainly hope that the tight end and quarterback don’t need to contribute right away, what does this all mean for 2026 fantasy football leagues?
Round 1, Pick 20 Overall: Makai Lemon, WR
The following is an excerpt from our Round One Rookie Roundup, which you can find here.
TALENT
Lemon can do a little bit of everything. The Trojans tasked him with the slot, out wide, getting routes and carries out of the backfield, and even throwing touchdowns (though he is primarily a slot receiver). He’s a versatile athlete who is a refined and polished route runner and who displays his exceptional athleticism when he breaks off the route at the top of his stem. Lemon is a fantastic contested-catch receiver, as he is a superb ball tracker and a tough, soft-handed receiver. It’s weird that I don’t have a lot to say about Lemon, because he is just fantastic at pretty much everything you ask him to do.
I do have a couple of quibbles with his game. First, if a defensive back can jam him at the line of scrimmage or quickly close the gap, Lemon struggles to shake him loose. Second, Lemon also struggles to find the proper spot in a zone, frequently drifting towards defenders and minimizing his space to catch the football. Lemon also lacks a top gear and the ability to juke multiple defenders in the open field.
All in all, Lemon has the ability to hit the ground running as a fantasy football-relevant receiver immediately. He will get the trust of his coaching staff right off the bat, because he never drops anything, lays it all on the field, and blocks his ass off. Lemon is a bit on the athletic side of the “athletic versus tough” binary, which drifts him towards the Luther Burden camp, and away from the Amon-Ra St. Brown camp (where many have him). He should contribute right away and have an exemplary and long career.
NFL Comparison: Luther Burden
Draft Grade: “Lottery” 1st Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
A.J. Brown, YOU are a New England Patriot. The Eagles (annoyingly) filled an impending need at wide receiver, and did it with my favorite wide receiver in this draft. The Eagles focus their entire passing game around two receivers, with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith taking a combined 234 targets in 2025. Like the two receivers taken before him, Lemon steps into a great situation to get a ton of volume in 2026. The Eagles took a renewed look at their passing game last season, and getting rid of malcontent A.J. Brown for the more versatile Lemon will allow them to mix and match with Lemon and Smith in the slot, giving them more unpredictability at wide receiver.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
My favorite wide receiver in this class is going to a high-powered offense that has a renewed passing priority and will be without its #1 wide receiver from last season. Makai Lemon is a priority add for me in fantasy football drafts, and is going to have a great rookie campaign for fantasy football purposes. I just hope the Niners beat them in the playoffs again.
Round 2, Pick 54 Overall: Eli Stowers, TE
TALENT
Stowers is an instinctual blocker and runner who does a great job of finding holes against zone and works himself open against man coverage. He is a great YAC player with good speed and the ability to angle the defender’s point of attack away from himself, forcing the defender to try for an ankle tackle instead of taking him head-on. He’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however, as he is an iffy contested catch receiver, and faster linebackers still give him trouble, as he isn’t a technical route runner, just generally more athletic than those he goes against. That isn’t too surprising, as Stowers is a converted quarterback who is still learning the position.
Ultimately, Stowers is raw, but he’s too fast for backers and too big for safeties, hitting that perfect tweener spot where defenders struggle to take him head-on. Vanderbilt utilized this strength, moving him all over the field to create mismatches, which led to his 2025 Mackey Award.
NFL Comparison: Trey McBride
Draft Grade: Round 2
2026 OPPORTUNITY
Things get interesting for Stowers… in 2027. This season, he has to contend with Dallas Goedert ahead of him, likely blocking his role to significant usage in his rookie campaign. The Eagles are in the bottom half of the league in tight end target rate, but there is a renewed focus on changing up the offense. Add in the impending A.J. Brown departure, and you have a circuitous path to relevancy in 2026 for Eli Stowers, but ultimately, I believe the Makai Lemon pick soaks up most of the vacated targets, the rest go to DeVonta Smith, and Stowers is left waiting for a Dallas Goedert injury to matter. Luckily for Stowers, Goedert has missed multiple games in seven straight seasons, so he has the chance to get his foot in the door.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
I’m not drafting Eli Stowers in redraft, but the second that Dallas Goedert pops up on the injury report with a calf or hamstring strain, I am sprinting to the waiver wire to add Stowers. We’ve already seen this game played with Zach Ertz and Trey McBride, where the super athletic kid just needed to get his foot in the door, and he, in turn, kicked it in. This is a second-half of the season outlook for Stowers, so don’t draft him, but monitor him. He’s a deep tight end pick in best ball for me, as my TE3, and is an easy round two rookie pick in dynasty drafts.
Round 5, Pick 178 Overall: Cole Payton, QB
TALENT
Payton didn’t have the highest level of competition, but he absolutely dominated the tomato cans he faced in 2025, en route to becoming my favorite quarterback in this class (chaos category). He’s a quirked up white boy, a massive lefty who is so eager to tuck and run that you might wonder if that’s all he has to his game a la Sam Ehlinger. But, he can unload a deep ball into a bucket better than anyone in this class (since Chambliss is going back to school), and he is always trying to get himself into the play, frequently trying to block on screen passes (which is, frankly, insane).
He can lay the wood on runs, but he also juked the entire team on a 45-yard touchdown run against Southern Illinois. He’s always doing something on the football field, which gives him strong coach’s son vibes.
But it’s very difficult to ascertain what Payton might do in the NFL because his offensive line was an abject failure in every regard. They couldn’t pass block when he dropped back, and they couldn’t run block when he was supposed to run the ball. He was constantly on the run, whether he wanted to be or not.
The short of it is this: Payton is a massive quarterback who wants to run as much as he can, and when he doesn’t run, he can put it on a rope or in a bucket, depending on what the play requires. His competition level and offensive line make it difficult to project him at the next level, but wherever he goes, he will be involved. And it will probably be Denver, since Sean Payton can get a young version of a player he was deeply obsessed with, and one with a big arm.
NFL Comp: Big Armed Taysom Hill
Draft Grade: Round 7
2026 OPPORTUNITY
He starts the season as the QB2, at best, and despite the rumor that this might be the last ride for Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, it’s highly unlikely that we see Cole Payton at all this season.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
He’s a round four or round five dynasty rookie pick, just to toss onto your taxi squads. He may never turn into anything, or he may turn into a bad version of Josh Allen. It’s worth a shot. In redraft and best ball, however, you’re banking on an injury for him to return any sort of value at all, so I’m not particularly interested.
