Notes: Amon-Ra St. Brown snubbed from top-16 WRs list

We all know Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is a man driven by those who doubt him. The ultimate competitor, St. Brown still keeps tabs on the 16 receivers taken before him in the 2021 NFL Draft.

This has been another week of disrespect for St. Brown. Earlier in the week, his Madden 24 ratings came out, and he was listed at a paltry 84—good for a tie with the 19th-best receiver in the video game. But video game ratings don’t really matter, and it would be silly to get upset over it.

It’s much more insulting to be disrespected by your peers, but that’s happened just a day later.

ESPN dropped the final installment of their top-10 lists, which were created by taking survey results from NFL coaches, executives, scouts and players. Ranking the top-10 receivers, St. Brown was nowhere to be found. In fact, he was nowhere amongst the six “honorable mentions,” either. According to the piece, St. Brown did receive votes, but it’s unclear how many.

Now to be completely fair, the NFL is stacked with talented wideouts. Rounding out the top 10 were extremely talented players like DK Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, and CeeDee Lamb. Even the honorable mentions featured potentially elite WR1s in Deebo Samuel, Garrett Wilson and Jaylen Waddle.

St. Brown is likely being victimized a little here for the kind of receiver he is. For whatever reason, the national perception is that receivers like him—who do the majority of their work in the short-to-intermediate range—aren’t as valuable as the prototypical fast and tall deep-ball receivers.

But that is simply untrue when it come to St. Brown. The Lions receiver finished 11th in receiving yards last year, ninth in DYAR (defense-adjusted yards above replacement), and second in PFF grade. That’s not even taking into account how valuable he is as a blocker and locker room culture builder.

But, hey, I’m sure he’s fine taking on the extra motivation for 2023.

• More Lions players are speaking out against dumb Madden 24 grades:

• Tough news for former Lions first-round pick Jarrad Davis. The linebacker, who was set to be a starter for the Giants this year, underwent surgery and was placed on season-ending IR.

• Your daily dose of Kool-Aid: Why Penei Sewell may be the best offensive tackle in the NFL:

• Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News has a nice profile on Lions offensive tackle Max Pircher, who is part of the International Pathways Program as an Italian-born player.

• Lions legend Herman Moore provided a balanced look at the Lions amidst the high expectations for 2023:

• Jeff Risdon of Lions Wire has five thoughts before the Lions head into training camp.