The Philadelphia Eagles made a great decision on a Thursday night, as Howie Roseman moved up three picks to select Makai Lemon, a stud wide receiver out of USC.
This just goes to show once again that Roseman is willing to do whatever it takes to put the best roster on the field, and amid all of the questions about A.J. Brown and his future in Philadelphia, this felt like something that had to happen.
However, it also goes to show some of the prior moves that Roseman has made in the past. There's a reason why the Eagles are as good as they are, and a lot of that is because of the smart decisions he made. He recently spoke about some of them, including the decision to select Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith.
"I remember talking to Doug (Pederson) and Jeffrey (Lurie) and saying there's a quarterback in this draft out of Oklahoma who has a lot of the characteristics of the guys who have had success," Roseman said of Hurts. "We graded him where we did and then had a lot of conversations about having other quarterbacks that we had belief in [during previous drafts] and that we waited on picking and then going before our pick. I think Jeffrey did a great job in that draft of reminding me of the things I had said and how important the position was and when you had belief in a player at that position to take that player."
"When we traded back (with Miami), it was with an understanding that we were going to try to trade back up," Roseman said, per the team. "Making that trade with Dallas (the Eagles used a third-round pick to move up two spots), we don't do a lot of trades with Dallas, but in that moment, we felt this was a player who was really going to fit for us perfectly.”
Obviously, putting the type of expectations that Smith and Hurts have on Lemon would be unfair, but there's no reason why he can't be an elite player in the NFL.
He proved during his time in the Big Ten that he can be one of the most complete wide receivers in the country, as some had him as the number two wide receiver in this entire draft.
Hopefully, this move will be just as good as the Hurts and Smith ones a few years ago.