Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown is ‘playing like a top-5, top-10 receiver’

Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is coming off a stretch of four games in which he has set his career-high in receiving yards in a game twice, eclipsed 100 yards three times and found the end zone three times. In that four-week span, St. Brown ranks second in the league in receiving yards (431), only behind Raiders receiver Davante Adams.

Even if you drop it back to the past six weeks, St. Brown still ranks fourth over that span, with 555 yards. The three receivers above him are largely considered the top players at the position: Adams (667), Justin Jefferson (623) and Tyreek Hill (606).

So maybe it should come as no surprise that Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said he believes St. Brown is in the top tier of players at his position.

“Truthfully, I really think he’s playing like a top five, top 10 receiver in this league right now,” Johnson said on Thursday. “He generates separation on a weekly basis. I think he’s very hard to cover. We’re trying the best we can to keep defenses guessing a little bit of where he’s going to lineup, but he does a lot of things himself.”

And while St. Brown is currently on a nice streak right now, he has really been playing at this level since his incredible finish to his rookie season, when he caught at least eight passes in each of the team’s final six games. His only lull since then was after he suffered an ankle injury in Week 3 that caused him to miss one game, and when concussion protocol took him out of the Cowboys game in the first quarter

Where St. Brown has been particularly lethal is on third downs. Per NextGenStats, he has converted a first down on 18.2 percent of his third-down routes—the highest percentage in the league. Last week against the Jaguars, St. Brown converted four third downs on his own, on the way to Detroit’s dominant 40-14 victory.

“He is well-built. He’s strong, he’s got quickness,” Johnson continued. “He’s as good as anybody we have on the team getting in and out of breaks to create separation at the top of the route. No, it’s awesome, and he’s not elite hands to go on top of it, so he can make some contested catches also.”

St. Brown isn’t the only getting praise from his coaches. Recently, media personality Rich Eisen also declared St. Brown at top-10 receiver in this league.

The Lions receiver has notoriously lived with a chip on his shoulder after being the 17th wideout taken in the 2021 NFL Draft. So how is he dealing with the increased attention and respect?

“It’s super humbling to be in that conversation,” St. Brown said on Wednesday. “But for me, I’ve just got to keep working, keep doing my thing, being consistent.”

Classic, St. Brown.