Howie Roseman explains why the Eagles drafted Makai Lemon

On the Steelers calling Lemon first

One of the bigger storylines from Day 1 of the draft was Makai Lemon being called up by the Steelers before the Eagles traded up to get him. Howie was asked about how that impacted their process.

“**ROSEMAN:** When we get on the clock, we immediately try and contact the player. It took us a couple minutes to contact the player and get him on the phone. You know, that hasn’t happened very often, so 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.“ Howie wouldn’t admit that they were specifically trying to block the Steelers from getting Lemon, and explained that based on their board, they felt the right move was to move up to get the WR. He quipped that when you have a player valued higher than your pick, you assume every team ahead of you is taking that guy, that’s just how the draft works out. The GM later said that they did not speak to the Steelers after the situation about how things went down.

On the A.J. Brown implications

Howie talked about how they wanted to build up the wide receiver room this offseason and it was a specific area they wanted to address. They wanted to collect what would amount to a basketball team — different players with different skillsets, which would give them versatility and depth. As for how this move may impact A.J. Brown, especially among the recent speculation that the Eagles have a deal in place with the Patriots post-June 1, Howie stayed with the company line.

“**ROSEMAN:** Again, A.J. [Brown] is a member of the Eagles. We don’t have any trades that have been made or that are done. I think for us, we’re taking this one day at a time. We’re going to look to improve the team tomorrow, and we’ll continue to address anything that we have to with our roster, not only through this draft weekend but we’ll continue to look for ways to improve the team throughout the offseason and as we get into training camp.”