On Wednesday ESPN continued their positional rankings with NFC execs series by ranking out the NFL’s best receivers. Detroit Lions’ receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown made the list at seventh after being on the honorable mention side last year. Here’s what they had to say:
“St. Brown famously watched 16 receivers get drafted ahead of him in 2021. From that group, only Chase has more receiving yards than St. Brown, whose Year 3 breakout vaulted him from the honorable mention category to Tier 2 alongside Lamb, Adams and Brown.
“Has elite football instincts for the position,” an NFL coordinator said. “Understands how to attack leverage. Runs hard every play. Plays inside and outside. Makes all the tough catches on high-leverage downs. Blocks, plays physical. The only thing he doesn’t do is win outside the red line [close to the sideline], but that’s not how the game works anyway.”
St. Brown’s 13 games with 100-plus receiving yards the past two seasons is tied for the third most in the NFL during that span.
St. Brown connected with quarterback Jared Goff for 1,515 yards in 2023, the fourth most in a season in Lions history, behind Calvin Johnson (twice) and Herman Moore. He recorded two drops on 165 targets.
This work earned St. Brown a massive four-year, $120 million extension this offseason.
The biggest issue with St. Brown is size (6-foot, 202 pounds), but he plays big.
“He’s really tough,” an NFC offensive coach said. “You know where the ball is going on third down and he’s usually coming up with it.”
One NFC executive countered: “That scheme and what [offensive coordinator] Ben Johnson has done makes him look really good. Not taking anything away from him, but he’s more dependent on the scheme than some of the other receivers on this list.”
Going to have to disagree with that last NFC executive there. St. Brown has shown that he’s able to go out and get it no matter what the scheme looks like. Plus his ability to win after the catch doesn’t have anything to do with the scheme. St. Brown finished second in the league in yards after the catch.
Seventh is a fine spot, but there’s an argument that he should be in that fifth spot. There’s a couple guys that you can make an argument for St. Brown being ahead of.
The first one is Ja’Marr Chase. He was ranked third on this list. Chase had a phenomenal rookie season and helped the Bengals get to the Super Bowl, but St. Brown has outperformed him ever since.