Latest 2026 NFL mock draft sends WR Makai Lemon to Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills’ 2026 NFL Draft needs come more into focus with each passing week of the regular season. One common refrain among Bills Mafia is the need for high-level talent at wide receiver — specifically, an elite separator with a preference on the ability to threaten the third level of a defense.

This next draft class has plenty of risers at the receiver spot that some may not have anticipated in the preseason. The general view had been that the 2027 draft class was the real prize if you wanted a slew of different high-level receiver prospects.

One of our latest mock drafts has the Bills going with an intriguing and hot name in draft circles for his performance in 2025. At pick 21, the Buffalo Bills select…

Makai Lemon, WR (USC)

Univerity of South California wide receiver Makai Lemon has been a darling of college football in 2025, with elite production this regular season (over 1,100 yards and 11 scores) for the Trojans. It’s been highlight after highlight as Lemon dazzles with and without the ball — showing unreal play strength for a 5’11”, 195-pound receiver.

Makai’s fearless over the middle of the field and has won in all areas, including at the line of scrimmage and working for extra yards with the ball in his hands. However, one of the big knocks on Lemon is true long speed and what his testing may look like to break away from NFL cornerbacks.

Lemon may just be so good that the testing won’t matter quite as much as it does for others (See: Keon Coleman). By no means is he a bad athlete thanks to his display of sudden burst and twitch as a route runner, but the length and long speed will be questions when the NFL Scouting Combine comes around. Depending on those results, that may knock Lemon down enough notches for the Bills to have an opportunity to select him.

Another conversation about Lemon will be whether he’s a slot-only player or not. A couple of NFL stars with a similar makeup in Jaxson Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua have bucked that negative connotation by proving themselves as inside-out options with the ability to play both despite some questions on true speed and s-tier burst off the line.

Some of the latest and greatest receivers in the game with JSN, Nacua, and Amon-Ra St. Brown have pushed aside paradigms of old while proving themselves to be some of the game’s most elite. There’s definitely some of that same feel rattling around in there for Lemon too as an instinctual football player who simply understands space and winning in the game’s most subtle areas.

This wouldn’t be a match made in heaven for the Bills with their need for more speed at the position on the outside, but Lemon’s ability to separate will be underrated amid some of the absurd contested grabs he’s come down with over the last couple of years.