Aside from his tremendous output over his first three seasons, it’s no secret that deep data adores Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. And, as predicted, he was rewarded for his efforts on the field with a lucrative contract extension this offseason.
We’ve discussed how St. Brown can’t be classified as a slot receiver anymore. He frequently lines up on the outside, and if he wasn’t effective, his surface production would have been lower than it was last season.
According to Pro Football Focus data, St. Brown performed well as an outside receiver last season. In 2023, St. Brown was the fourth-most productive outside receiver according to PFF, based on yards per route.
St. Brown averaged 3.03 yards per route run as an outside receiver last season. He receives some criticism for having a low average depth of target (aDOT), but there is no disputing his ability.
“Amon-Ra St. Brown is one of the best playmakers in the league.” Over the last two seasons, 73 of St. Brown’s targets have been inside nine yards of the line of scrimmage, but he has 1,459 receiving yards in that time, including 37 gains of 15 yards or more.
“St. Brown caught six touchdown passes in 2023 and moved the chains 43 times. He forced 10 missed tackles, recorded 25 explosive gains and gained 375 yards after the catch.”
Analytics continue to show rare air Amon-Ra St. Brown is in
PFF also recently ranked the league’s finest receivers versus press coverage from last season. St. Brown is also ranked fourth there.
‘”St. Brown’s 1,346 receiving yards against press coverage tied with Puka Nacua and trailed only Tyreek Hill and CeeDee Lamb in the regular season and playoffs in 2023. He averaged 12.8 yards per catch, despite seeing an average target depth of just 8.2 yards.”
Football Insights recently offered up a chart showing how NFL wide receivers have done against man and zone coverage over the last decade (2014-2023). Up and right is where you’d like to be. St. Brown sits seventh over the span in yards per route run against zone coverage. He’s got a lot more receivers ahead of him in YPRR against man coverage, but the fact he’s not in a cluster that makes his name harder to find on the chart says it all.
And this chart is not merely a season-long data sample, it spans the last 10 NFL seasons, presumably with some threshold for snaps played to qualify.
