Amon-Ra St. Brown Issues Major Challenge to Lions Ahead of Next Season

The Detroit Lions have one of the league’s next standout wide receivers in Amon-Ra St. Brown, and as he gets set to start his third year in the league,

St. Brown has always been a major goal setter, and heading into this season, that isn’t slowing down a bit. Not only does St. Brown have goals for himself, but he has them for his team, as well.

Coming into another season, St. Brown isn’t content, even as the Lions went 9-8 and showed some tangible signs of turning the corner. According to the wide receiver, the time is now for the team to take some strides forward into the future.

Speaking with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press in a video interview, St. Brown was asked about what goals he has moving forward. Instead of talking about personal goals, St. Brown admitted he is taking a team-first approach this year. The goal? Going to the postseason, because it’s something everyone is hungering for.

“I feel like for me, moving forward, I always have goals but what I really want to do is (go to the playoffs). I know we won a few games last year. We finished pretty strong. But I want to go to the playoffs bad. I feel like Detroit as a city, they want it so bad. I feel as a team, we want it bad. I feel like we got the guys to do it. So I’m just excited to start winning games consistently week in and week out,” St. Brown said in the interview. “Being able to go into the game confident that we’re going to win. Not to say we weren’t confident last season. Just having that, cockiness is not the right word, but just the understanding that we put the work in, we know what we have on our team. We got the guys, let’s go win it. I think that’s where we’re headed and I’m excited for it.”

Specifically, St. Brown also admitted that a top goal of his centers around team leadership. Now that he is a third-year player, St. Brown thinks he can begin to offer some things to the younger players from draft classes that are continuing to come into the fold behind him.

“I just want to be more of a leader going into year three. I think I’m old enough now to become a leader. I’m just excited to become more of a leader and start winning games,” he explained to Birkett.

Leadership, going to the playoffs and winning are some of St. Brown’s biggest goals this season over personal stats. That points to a player who knows what he wants ahead of the season, and isn’t afraid to let everyone know.

Amon-Ra St. Brown: Lions Shooting for Top Offense

Offensively, the Lions were already one of the best teams in the league last year. They finished top-four in terms of total offense, and put up 380 yards per-game.

For St. Brown, though, that isn’t nearly enough. The quest for 2023 is to not just duplicate the success the team had in 2022, but exceed it markedly. As he explained to Birkett, St. Brown wants to see the offense be the NFL’s top offense across the board this coming year.

“I think for us an offense, we had a pretty decent offense last year. Obviously you want to be number one in every category, so I think that’s what we’re striving for as an offense. Number one in total yards per-game, total scoring offense, we want to be number one in all those categories. Not turning the ball over, I think we did a pretty good job of that last season, but you can always improve,” St. Brown said in the interview.

It isn’t just St. Brown that feels this way, though. As he explained, the Lions as a whole may have the same approach, especially when it comes to their offensive coordinator, who could be shooting for greatness himself.

“I think if you asked Ben (Johnson), his goal would be to be number one in all categories and that’s my goal, too. I think that’s everyone’s goal in this offense because we know what we can do. So, whatever we can do to be number one in all those categories is what we’re going to do,” St. Brown told Birkett.

Last season, the Lions finished with the eighth-overall passing offense, putting up 4,281 yards and 29 touchdowns. They also finished with the 11th overall rushing offense, going for 128.2 yards per-game and 23 scores on the ground. This points to their balance, but clearly, St. Brown is hungering for even more.

Amon-Ra St. Brown Had Productive 2022 Season

This past year, St. Brown did 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, and he has done a lot to lead by example on the field.

Through the end of the season, St. Brown was the Lions’ leading receiver. He 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:

Not only leading with his words, St. Brown is leading with his play as well. He seems to know that things are proceeding in the right direction for the Lions, which is a big admission for the team and the fanbase.

Now that the team has tasted some success, St. Brown wants to see even more good days on the horizon for the team and their offense.