Detroit Lions star Amon-Ra St. Brown still motivated by 2021 NFL Draft
Detroit Lions fans are excited about the upcoming 2023 NFL season and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is one of the main reasons.
Drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the USC product has risen as one of the top targets in the entire league and it was being selected with the No. 112 pick that keeps his motivation fueled.
In fact, as St. Brown said during an episode of last season’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions, it is the 16 wide receivers chosen before him that stays fresh in his mind. Some of those players include Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, Kadarius Toney and Rashod Bateman all selected in the first round of that year’s draft.
While St. Brown’s combined numbers in his first two seasons in the NFL either compares to or even outshine a couple of those players, their high draft value was understandable. It is the receivers selected after that, which stays on the top of the mind of Brown, who put forth a Pro Bowl season in 2022. A season in which he led the Lions in receiving with 106 catches for 1,161 yards.
Detroit Lions star Amon-Ra St. Brown playing a different kind of name game
In an appearance on Monday’s NFL Total Access, the Lions young receiver is still highly motivated by those 16 receivers taken ahead of him.
"“I actually still think about it,” St. Brown admitted, as transcribed by NFL.com. “I actually have my goals written down in my notebook. What I want to achieve every year. So, what I want to achieve this year going into the season, my personal goals, and then right below that I have the 16 receivers written down, where they went to college right below that. And so, I read that whole list three times before I go to practice every day. It’s something I’ll never forget. Something I make sure I’m always reminded of.”"
While that list does indeed include standouts like Waddle and Chase, if there was a 2021 NFL Draft re-do based on the last two seasons, one could argue St. Brown as the third best receiver who would probably go in at least the top 15 based on the need at wide receiver of some teams who passed on him in the actual draft.
Though one of those teams was initially the Lions, they are glad he was still around in the fourth round, and it is paying dividends for a team that turned their season around last year. Much of that was due to a weapon in St. Brown that had that offense rolling by the end of the 2022 NFL season.
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What’s ahead for St. Brown and the Detroit Lions?
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With a couple of intriguing rookies in running back Jahmyr Gibbs and tight end Sam LaPorta, the Lions offense will be run to watch in 2023. If the team can ride off the momentum of the end of 2022, they should find themselves competing for the top spot in the NFC North, especially with Aaron Rodgers now in New York.
As far as third year success goes, Amon-Ra St. Brown sounds poised for an even bigger season.