Notes: Amon-Ra St. Brown’s fiery competitiveness has deep roots

By now you’ve likely heard Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is one competitive guy. But just how deep does it go?

In an awesome profile from The Detroit News’ Nolan Bianchi, we learn even more about what makes the sun god operate the way he does. Bianchi spoke with football colleagues from St. Brown’s past to paint an even clearer picture.

Former 11-year NFL veteran T.J. Houshmandzadeh coached against St. Brown, who was a senior at that time a senior at Mater Dei in Santa Ana, California.

“I said to one of these (players), ‘Man, f--- him up, man. ....’ And his exact words to me were, ‘Coach, he a dog. I couldn’t believe they said that to me. … Like, the dude said, ‘Coach, he a dog.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t give a f---. What, you not a dog?’”

“It was just — his peers respected him in high school.”

Another coach, Jason Negro, was the head coach at rival high school St. John Bosco described facing St. Brown.

“He has a passion that’s really just different from a lot of kids. He doesn’t wanna just beat you. He wants to dominate you,” he said.

There are many other telling anecdotes and comments from people of Amon-Ra’s past, check out the whole feature here.

And onto the rest of your notes.

• Over at The Athletic, Nick Baumgardner evaluates the 17 teams below .500 through five weeks. I particularly enjoyed the categories — the Lions fall under the “Is everything OK?” heading. ($)

• The Next Gen Stats analytics team ranks TJ Hockenson eighth among tight ends in the league.

• Drop the album!

• “The guy can rifle it when he’s got time, but can he be trusted amid trouble?” Jared Goff dropped two spots down to 19th in CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin’s QB Power Rankings.

• HBD #16

• It can be a bummer watching these following a loss but you can still see Taylor Decker’s personality on display mic’d up against the Patriots.

• Looking ahead: