Next Potential Of An Eagles 1-2 Draft Knockout On Hold, After Eli Stowers Put On IR

First-round rookie Makai Lemon will have a Week 1 role vs. the Commanders, but second-round pick Eli Stowers will have to wait his turn after a quad injury sends him to IR.

Eagles rookie receiver Makai Lemon has spent a lot of time working after practice to make up for time lost with an injury during his rookie training camp. | Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles have had quite a knockout 1-2 punch in the past several drafts with players taken in the first and second rounds, from Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean (2024), Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith (2023), Jordan Davis and Cam Jurgens (2022), and DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson (2021).

This year's knockout - if there is to be one - will have to wait at least a month after an MRI revealed a quad injury that will require rehab and a minimum of four weeks on Injured Reserve. Stowers seemed fine in the locker room after Friday's practice, even saying he was going to play.

Some leg discomfort develeoped between then and Saturday, when the Eagles announced he was going to be placed on IR. The Eagles have three tight ends availabe for Sunday's opener against the Commanders - Dallas Goedert, Johnny Mundt, and E.J. Jenkins.

Stowers struggled for the past couple of weeks with a hamstring injury, suffered during joint practices with the Patriots in mid-August.

Meanwhile, Friday’s locker room availability was over, and Lemon had yet to come out to his locker. Eagles PR staff, however, told the media to stick around, and he would talk outside when he was done doing extra work on the field to prepare for Sunday.

Lemon, the first-round receiver, has been doing extra work on the field since his hamstring injury was deemed fully healthy in the final week of training camp. He arrived for the waiting crowd of reporters about 15 minutes after the 45-minute locker room session ended.

“Getting extra reps, I feel like that's what is gonna take you to that next level,” said Lemon, pinned up against the Eagles’ office building at the Jefferson Health Training Complex by a dozen or more reporters and TV cameras. “I feel like I'm caught up for sure. I feel good and right with the team.”

What Could Liftoff Look Like?

Eli Stowers works on a drill during Eagles practice. | Ed Kracz/Eagles on S

It’s ridiculous for anyone to write off Stowers – and even Lemon, for that matter – at this stage of their development.

“Everybody's road and their development, it's different for every single person,” said Stowers, who added that he approaches every day with the mindset of just getting better.

“That's kind of what I remind myself of,” he said. Now, he really has to remind himself as he spends the next month, and maybe longer, rehabbing.

In the brief glimpses we have seen of Lemon, he looks like a just-turned-22-year-old who is trying too hard and not letting the game come to him.

Asked about that by On Eagles SI on Friday, he said: “The guys just telling me to go out there, do what I've been doing in practice and just perfect what your assignment is. Like you said, don't try to do too much, just be yourself.”

Lemon’s locker is next to DeVonta Smith. And that is by design.

“I always tell him, ‘I'm, I'm here if you need me, I'm not gonna bother you much, but if you need something, just come talk to me anytime,’” said Smith.

The receiver then tilted his head to the locker next to his and said, “That’s the reason they put him right here.”

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