Getty Amon-Ra St. Brown celebrates with Jared Goff after a win in 2023.
The Detroit Lions have seen the development of plenty players over the last few years, but perhaps none as important as wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown.
From obscurity as a fourth-round pick, St. Brown has turned himself into one of the best wideouts in the NFL in a short amount of time, and that might only be more obvious now that the 2022-23 season is in the books.
Pro Football Focus took a look at their season reviews for teams, and in Detroit, the highest-graded player the team had was none other than St. Brown, who achieved a 90.7 mark for his work.
Writer Marcus Mosher took a look at recapping the season, and picked out the highest-rated players on every team. For Detroit, that was none other than St. Brown, who enjoyed a wonderful season for the team’s offense, especially after coming on following injury.
“St. Brown dealt with some injuries early in the year and didn’t really take off until Week 8. But after that, he was absolutely fantastic for the Lions. He averaged more than 82 yards from scrimmage a game in the final 11 weeks, catching 78 passes for 886 yards. He totaled 1,256 yards on the season and has developed into the most reliable and consistent weapon on the Lions’ offense,” Mosher wrote in the piece.
Indeed, St. Brown’s 90.7 rating was good enough to place him the second amongst wideouts in the league by PFF, a huge feather in his cap.
Amon-Ra St. Brown: 90.7 PFF Grade
Second among WRs 🔥
This simply proves that St. Brown is an emerging star at his position, and he is capable of even more as the years go on. It will be interesting to see how his PFF ranks continue to evolve during his NFL career.
St. Brown Appreciated ‘Special’ Lions Season
As special as folks at PFF and otherwise seem to think St. Brown is and can be, it’s clear that St. Brown himself feels the same way about the Lions’ team as a whole.
Speaking to the media after the season on January 9, St. Brown was more focused on the team than any personal accomplishments. As he said to Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News and others, he believes he was part of a special group of players for what was accomplished.
Amon-Ra St. Brown sums up the 2022 Lions season: “Those last 10 weeks, it felt special.”
“I was a part of a special group. To do what we did, we lost our first game, then won our second. After we won that second game, we were like ‘alright here we go, let’s start this thing.’ Then we lost five straight, whatever it was. It wasn’t a good feeling, every week coming into the building having lost another close one or whatever. I think we beat the Packers here at home and then when we beat Chicago at that away game. I think that’s kind of when I felt things changing. Just the way the way the game went,” St. Brown said.
“I was so used to being on the other side of that and the fact that Jeff (Okudah) had that pick-six. (Chicago) missed the the extra point. Right after that game I feel like we had a chance to do something special this year and sure enough, we went on a little roll. We lost a few games in between, but those last 10 weeks just felt special. It felt different. Hopefully the people from outside were able to see that. That’s really something that we wanted to do was get that respect and I think from (Sunday night) from what we did, I think we got we got some of that.”
Not only have the Lions achieved some of that respect, but St. Brown himself has with his quality work on the field. He was a big reason the Lions were able to earn some of that respect over that time period on the field.
St. Brown Enjoyed Fantastic 2022 Season
This year, the wideout has done nothing to change the notion that he is a player on the rise to be taken seriously in terms of star power in the league.
Through the end of the season, St. Brown has been the Lions’ leading receiver. He’s managed to put up 1,161 yards and six touchdowns on the season. The fact that he was able to finish over 1,000 yards was a big feather in his cap toward being thought of as an elite talent in the league. That’s especially true given the feat came in Detroit, a place not accustomed to such performances since Calvin Johnson’s retirement.
St. Brown’s best game of the year did come on Thanksgiving Day, where he went for 122 yards and a score against a solid Buffalo team. Perhaps this effort will start to get him on more national radars.
St. Brown delivered another big day for Detroit, putting up 114 yards and two touchdowns against Jacksonville. Perhaps the most impressive score on the day happened late in the fourth quarter on first-and-goal, when St. Brown was able to shake free and put a dagger in the Jaguars:
Have a game, @amonra_stbrown ☀️
#ProBowlVote | JAXvsDET | 📺 FOX
Not only leading with his words, St. Brown is leading with his play as well. It’s clear he is becoming one of the most feared targets in the NFL at wide receiver all things considered as PFF has shown.