Rookie wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown has the potential to become a reliable wide receiver in the Detroit Lions' offense for the foreseeable future.
As the struggles on offense got progressively worse the second and third quarter of the season, head coach Dan Campbell expressed he wanted to get Detroit's 2021 fourth round draft pick more involved in the offense.
"I’ll be honest with you, we have a lot of trust in him," Campbell said postgame. "We have for a while, it’s just trying to get him the football here a little bit and staying on the field and being able to -- we did a good job of first, second down today. We stayed efficient and we were able to continue to gather some drives because our third downs still weren’t good enough. But our first- and second-down efficiency was really good, so we were able to stay on the field and spread the ball around a little bit. But we have a lot of trust in him. He’s one of those guys who has become pretty dependable for us.”
With the game on the line, quarterback Jared Goff found St. Brown for the game-winning touchdown on the final play of regulation to give Detroit a thrilling 29-27 victory.
The reception sent the Ford Field crowd into a frenzy and the roster into full celebration mode.
“He’s a stud. He’s a stud. A lot of confidence. He’s a stud and will be a stud for as long as he wants to be in this league," Goff told reporters. "He’s been on our mind and I’m sure (head coach) Dan (Campbell) would say too of like trying to get him the ball for the last probably six weeks now.
"I think today it showed up. It’s just trying to get him involved and give him the ball in space and what he can do with the ball, I’m sure he jumped over somebody on the sidelines earlier on in the game. He’s a freak and can do some things.”
In his debut campaign, the Ex-Trojans wideout has secured 49 receptions for 438 yards and one touchdown.
As Goff works to improve and the team adds weapons on offense, St. Brown has the potential to become heavily involved in future game plans.
The addition of Josh Reynolds has given the 27-year-old quarterback and the coaching staff more confidence in airing it out.
"We knew as an offense it was on us. We had one timeout, but I think we had plenty enough time to score, and we knew that going into it. I mean we were driving the ball methodically. They were protecting the sidelines at some point, so it was hard to get out of bounds," St. Brown explained. "So, I think Jared (Goff) did a great job of checking it down, taking what they were giving us. We clocked it a few times and I mean it came to that last play, fourth down. We work that play all the time in practice. We’ve been working it since camp and it finally showed up, so it was crazy.”
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