The Detroit Lions aren’t known for seeing their players get voted to the Pro Bowl, but with a better roster, that should be on the horizon in the future.
For their work in 2022, the Lions landed just one Pro Bowl player in center Frank Ragnow. Arguably, there should have been a second in wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown, which could point to him as one of the biggest snubs in the league thus far.
Pro Football Focus recently took a look at naming the biggest snubs for the honor across the league, and writer Marcus Mosher wasted little tine naming St. Brown as the answer for Detroit.
“The third-highest-graded receiver in the NFL this season, St. Brown has managed to become one of the most reliable weapons in the league. He is averaging 2.48 yards per route run, the fifth-best mark in the NFL. He’s also second in the NFL in yards after the catch (501), behind only Justin Jefferson. St. Brown is now over 1,100 yards on the season despite missing a game and leaving another in the first quarter,” Mosher wrote in the piece.
It was stunning to see a player that is so valuable come up short for the Pro Bowl, but snubs are nothing new for the Lions. At times, it seems the team has to achieve three times the success of their counterparts before players start to receive their overdue love.
The time will indeed be coming for St. Brown, but it’s frustrating that it hasn’t arrived sooner for a player who is already looking the part of an elite talent. That’s true in multiple different ways.
St. Brown Snubbed as a Top NFL Player Under 25
This isn’t even the first snub that St. Brown has seen this year. Already, the youngster was passed over on a key list by ESPN relating to the league’s top talent under 25.
Naturally, St. Brown should have been considered for the list, except for he wasn’t St. Brown was omitted from that list, which was recently compiled by a cast of ESPN insiders.
Not to worry, though, because analyst Matt Miller identified the diss and wrote about how St. Brown was snubbed by the piece within.
“The do-it-all ability of St. Brown makes the Lions’ offense one of the most difficult to shut down in the NFL. He is among the toughest players pound-for-pound in the NFL, an electric runner after the catch and a physical route runner. St. Brown has 716 receiving yards this season, and his time is coming for national attention,” Miller wrote.
St. Brown’s time is coming, indeed, if it is not already here. In the future, it would not be a shock to see him occupy more lists like this one much higher very soon.
St. Brown Enjoying Pro Bowl-Level Season
Even though he hasn’t received much of the publicity of other players, St. Brown simply keeps plugging along in a big way. His quiet dominance during the 2022 season is not going unnoticed.
With his seven catch, 76 yard effort in Week 16, St. Brown locked up a rare 1,000 yard season for a Detroit wideout. More than that, he continues to produce big games and deft plays for an offense that he has certainly carried at times this season.
Such was the case in a Week 13 waxing of Jacksonville, where St. Brown erupted for 114 yards and two touchdowns as part of Detroit’s commanding 40-14 win.
In total, St. Brown has racked up 1,050 yards and six touchdowns and the season isn’t even over yet. That easily eclipses his 912 yard, five touchdown season he used to burst on the scene as a rookie in 2021.
While those apparently aren’t the numbers of a Pro Bowl starter, folks clearly understand that St. Brown is a snub.
Never one to shy away from finding motivation, this could simply be another case of that for the youngster.
Comments
Perpetually Overlooked Lions Star Called Major NFL Pro Bowl Snub