After catching the third most passes in the NFL since he entered the league, Amon-Ra St. Brown caught a stray. Steelers receiver George Pickens called St. Brown a "slot merchant" this week, crediting St. Brown's production to his role within the Lions' offensive scheme.
Pickens ranked himself with the "top five, top three" receivers in the NFL and said he could prove it if Pittsburgh's offense favored him "schematically," adding, "some guys, certain situations are better for certain receivers."
"Schematically is the biggest thing in football," said Pickens. "That’s how you get Amon-Ra St Brown’s, slot merchants, that schematically get fed the ball."
St. Brown isn't sweating it.
"Honestly, I don’t even think it was a stray," he said. "I feel like a lot of people just saw the clip and saw the short part of it, but I don’t think he meant anything bad. I feel like he was just saying that if you have a good offensive coordinator, which we do have, Ben (Johnson's) great, he’s special at what he does, he’s able to get guys in spots to make plays, that’s a credit to Ben and everyone on our staff.
"But like I said, I don’t think he meant any (ill) intent. He’s just saying, with a good offensive coordinator, (you can) make plays."
After a slow start offensively by their own standards, the Lions rank first in the NFL in points and third in yards through five games. St. Brown is still trailing his own pace from the last two seasons, partly due to extra attention from opposing defenses, mostly due to the number of mouths to feed around him.
St. Brown averaged 10.3 targets, 7.4 receptions and 94.7 yards per game last season. He finished tied for second in the NFL in catches and third in yards. He's averaging about two fewer targets and 6.2 receptions and 57.8 yards this season. He's tied for 13th in catches and tied for 35th in yards.
St. Brown sets lofty personal goals at the start of each season, like last year when he aimed for 150 catches, 1,500 yards and 10 touchdowns. He hit the latter two. The former would have been an NFL record. He won't share his goals this season until the end of the year, but he's surely behind schedule.
But entering a crucial game against the undefeated Vikings for first place in the NFC Nort, the Lions are 4-1 and the offense is cooking.
“Anyway that I can help the team win is always goal No. 1," said St. Brown. "Of course you’d like to have 100 yards every game, touchdowns every game, but that’s just not the reality of this game. Teams game-plan, whatever the case may be, some guys find the ball more some games, some guys don’t. And I get that. We have a bunch of playmakers on our team, so when you put up 47 points or 40-plus points, you’re doing something right."
The Lions hung 47 on the Cowboys last week, 42 the game before that against the Seahawks. They scored on all of their drives in Dallas. They are a top-five offense in both passing and rushing for the second season in a row. Jared Goff has a career-high passer rating of 105.3 and leads the NFL in yards per attempt.
With St. Brown's slower start has come the emergence of Jameson Williams, who's tied for 10th in the NFL in yards per game (73.0) and second in yards per catch (22.8). Williams called his third-year breakout "satisfying, but I feel like I got a long way to go, a lot more work to be put in. This is just the start of something. The work never stops, every day, every day. Just trying to be the best."
Asked if he's noticed teams defending the Lions differently knowing that he's a threat to go deep, Williams said, "A little bit, but I really don’t think it matters. We just scored 40 points back to back, so if they keep doing that, I think some teams need to find something else to do."
Along with St. Brown and Williams, the Lions got big plays last week from tight end Sam LaPorta and receivers Tim Patrick and Kalif Raymond, plus the usual dosage of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. If Detroit's depth of talent means St. Brown's individual numbers suffer, so be it. Too many playmakers is a good problem to have.
"I see a lot of people talking about wide receiver 1, 2 and 3," said Williams. "I really don't think that matters to us. We all spread it around very well."
“We’re just executing at a high level," said St. Brown. "We’re on our details, on our spots. Jared’s done a great job taking care of the football. O-line protecting their butts off up front, blocking the run game, moving guys. Running backs, D-Mo and Jahmyr, carrying that pill. Then us pass-catchers trying to get open and make plays in any way that we can, and blocking too."
"We just gotta continue to build on what we’re doing and hopefully we can continue to grow as an offense," said St. Brown.
If and when they do, his production should start to catch up.