Eagles Preach Patience As Makai Lemon Continues To Battle Hamstring Injury

Eagles preach patience as Makai Lemon continues to battle hamstring injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Makai Lemon’s rookie training camp so far has consisted of three practices and a small portion of a fourth, no big plays and one nagging hamstring injury.

Lemon, the 20^th player taken in this year’s draft, has now been out for a week and missed four full practices and most of a fifth.

After missing the last two weeks of OTAs with a hamstring injury – we don’t know if they’re related – Lemon has been reduced to a spectator during training camp practices.

It’s tough for anybody to miss this much time. It’s especially tough for a young rookie in his first NFL camp.

“It’s an unfortunate part of camp,” offensive coordinator Sean Mannion said before practice Saturday. “Sometimes you lose a guy for a few days, but he’s been super engaged in the meetings. Out at walkthrough, he has a script, he’s following every play. He’s kind of mirroring the alignment of his position in the offense. 

“He’s been making the most of a situation where you obviously want guys to be out there, but he’s been super engaged. I know he’s attacking his rehab to get back out.”

Lemon caught a couple passes in his first practice back on July 29, getting some reps with the first offense and also looking smooth fielding punts. He had a quiet Day 2, and the highlight of Day 3 was picking up a DPI on Jeremiah Trotter. He left very early in Day 4, the indoor practice last Monday.

He was out watching practice this past week, but watching practice and participating are very different things.

The Eagles right now are down four receivers, with DeVonta Smith and Britain Covey also out with hamstrings and Danny Gray dealing with a concussion.

The one positive is that the other receivers, who are supposed to be behind Lemon, have all taken turns making plays. 

Dontayvion Wicks is enjoying a terrific camp, Darius Cooper is a highlight machine, Elijah Moore has really come on the last few days and Hollywood Brown has made his share of plays as well. Johnny Wilson has also had a couple good days.

Nick Sirianni said the coaches and trainers are both working with Lemon to teach him the offense in extra meetings while also trying to get him healthy enough to get back on the field.

No timetable on Lemon. One thing the Eagles never do is rush players back, no matter how much they need the reps.

“It’s just, right now, how do we get him healthy?” Sirianni said. “How do we get him as healthy as we can and get him back rolling? 

“He’s doing the things in the meeting rooms. He’s watching the walkthrough portions of it and being diligent there. This isn’t new. This happens, right? You’ve got guys that are out for some time or an extended period of time or a short period of time, and they’ve got to make sure that they’re doing the right things. 

“Us as coaches, (make sure we’re) getting that extra meeting time with them as well when they miss some of the time on the field. Excited about him, and we’ll continue to work like crazy to get him back.”