By now, everyone knows the story of how the Philadelphia Eagles embarrassed the Pittsburgh Steelers on draft night to select Makai Lemon. We won't delve back into that story, but it is one to continue to monitor as careers play out. Lemon is off to a slow start in Philadelphia, while the Steelers' recent first-rounder, Max Iheanachor, continues to show he is a strong option at right tackle.
The NFL world was shocked recently when legendary offensive tackle Lane Johnson announced his retirement four weeks into the season.
That's an uncommon occurrence, especially for a player of his caliber. Now that Johnson is off the Eagles roster, they will rely on rookie third-round pick Markel Bell to fill in. This just goes to show that "stealing" Lemon from the Steelers might become a massive issue for their franchise when it's all said and done.
Instead of relying on Bell to take over Lane Johnson's starting gig, they could've had Max Iheanachor if they allowed Pittsburgh to pick Lemon in the first round. Instead, Philadelphia will be relying on more of a lesser talent in Bell in hopes that he exceeds expectations.
As of now, the Iheanachor pick by the Steelers is aging better than Lemon with the Eagles as the wideout continues to struggle.
Eagles could've had a Lane Johnson successor if they hadn't leapfrogged the Steelers for Makai Lemon
The Steelers could've used someone of Makai Lemon's stature to help their offense. They continue to struggle at the position, but the truth is, their need at right tackle became much more apparent following the NFL Draft. Having Max Iheanachor as a quality fallback option turned out great.
Through two starts of his career, he has shown glimpses of brilliance, even though some growing pains have popped up here and there.
One of the long-standing strengths of the Eagles has been their offensive line, but that hasn't been the case this season. The interior of that group is starting to fall apart, and now, with Lane Johnson announcing his retirement, their right tackle spot is a question mark. Philadelphia is experiencing issues across their offense, and without a strong offensive line, the odds are stacked against them.
Although Lemon might've been the better draft choice at the time, he hasn't been great through the first four games of his NFL career.
He only has ten catches for a meager 65 receiving yards and no touchdowns. For comparison, Steelers wideout Roman Wilson has 14 receptions for 188 yards and two touchdowns during that same span of time. Losing out on Lemon was a bitter pill to swallow for the club, but it's been a tougher circumstance for the Eagles to deal with.
At the end of the day, Philadelphia would've been better off letting Pittsburgh take Lemon and using their top draft choice to select an offensive tackle in the first round instead. They have found their greatest success behind a strong offensive line, and they seemed to forget that to a point this year.
Now that Lane Johnson is out of the picture, the Eagles could be in trouble for the rest of the way unless Markel Bell bails them out. Max Iheanachor could have been their right tackle of the future.
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