Makai Lemon knows he has "lots to improve" after minus-5 yards in his first NFL game

Eagles rookie wide receiver Makai Lemon had a box score to forget in the first game of his NFL career: Against the Commanders, Lemon caught three passes for minus-5 yards. Lemon knows he needs to do better.

Lemon caught the first pass thrown to him in the flat for a gain of three yards. The Eagles then twice ran a play when Lemon went in motion and Jalen Hurts threw the ball to him behind the line of scrimmage, and on both he was tackled almost immediately, once for minus-three yards and once for minus-five yards.

“Lots to improve on,” Lemon said, via the Philadelphia Inquirer.

So far, the Eagles don’t look like they trust Lemon to get open downfield. In addition to his poor showing in Week 1, in the preseason, Lemon also caught exclusively short passes, finishing with three catches for three yards. Lemon knows he needs to show his team that he can run good downfield routes.

“Route details,” Lemon said. “Just making sure I define my routes and assignments.”

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni defended Lemon and said his game was better than his box score looked.

“There’s a lot of things that Makai did in that game that don’t reflect on the stat sheet,” Sirianni said. “We constantly talk about that: What are you doing to help this team win the game, particularly if you’re a skill guy? That might not be able to be seen from the stat book or to the naked eye. What he’s always done a good job since he’s been here [is] blocking, doing the right things, being in the right spots. Obviously the ones that went to him [on Sunday] didn’t equal out to a big yardage game, right? But he did little things to help us win the football game that sometimes are unseen.”

At some point, though, the Eagles need their first-round receiver to make some plays that do show up on the stat sheet.