Getty Jared Goff gestures to Lions teammates in a 2021 game against Denver.
Coming into the 2021 season, the Detroit Lions didn’t know what they had in Amon-Ra St. Brown. The rookie was a fourth-round pick, and as such, expectation were’t great for him to be able to come in and play an instant role for the team.
Early on, St. Brown got off to a slow start, only catching 6 passes in his first three games with the team. There was likely some question with the fanbase of if he was going to be able to adjust quickly to the NFL, or if he was simply going to be a bust.
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The Lions, though, remained patient and that patience has paid off in a big way. St. Brown has come into his own during the second half of the season and the youngster is now looking like he is one of the top weapons to come out of the 2021 class. While it could be a surprise to some fans, it’s not to quarterback Jared Goff
Speaking with the Karsch and Anderson program on 97.1 The Ticket, Goff was asked about St. Brown and provided an interesting answer. As he said, he believes St. Brown is as good as he has been around on the field as a rookie at wideout.
Jared Goff just told us Amon Ra St Brown is “as good as he’s been around as a rookie.” He was around Cooper Kupp as a rookie. ASB also broke Calvin Johnson’s rookie receptions record.
Should we be more excited about ASB?
Do they have a legit WR1 in ASB
Talking about this now
As the tweet points out, that is notable for the Lions because Goff was around Cooper Kupp as a rookie. Goff also had multiple quality targets during his time in Los Angeles, so for him to single out St. Brown is very interesting and perhaps telling, indeed.
St. Brown Greeted With Drug Test After Big Day
After a big day catching the ball against Arizona, it was ironic that St. Brown was the recipient of a mysterious random drug test by the NFL. The joke with some players is the tests aren’t all that random at all. Certainly, that seemed to be the case with St. Brown, who tweeted laughter about having to submit a sample to the league the very next day.
Obviously, St. Brown is clean, but his rapid emergence has raised enough eyebrows around the league where he will get called in to provide a random sample after his best game of the year.
St. Brown Coming on Strong Late Season for Lions
So far this season, St. Brown hasn’t put up huge numbers at all until late in the year. The 90 yards against the Cardinals was a season-high for the receiver, and during Week 13, St. Brown only has 601 yards and 2 touchdowns to his credit. Still, it’s significant to see the young receiver getting better and better as the season has worn on. The Lions haven’t necessarily targeted St. Brown consistently this year, so it’s remarkable that he is producing as well as he is at this point in time in his rookie season in the league.
Here is St. Brown’s best play so far this year other than his Week 15 score, when he got into the end zone against Minnesota for the game winning score in Week 13:
St. Brown is only gaining in confidence as the season wears on, and his quarterback provided him with even more after a sterling Week 15. It will be interesting to see how much better he can get in the final few weeks of the season.
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Jared Goff Heaps Major Praise on Rookie Amon-Ra St. Brown