Amon-Ra St. Brown climbs ESPN wide receiver rankings just as expected

Amon-Ra St. Brown has been one of the most productive wide receivers in the NFL over the last three seasons, by basically any measure you'd like to find. His 13 100-yard games is tied for third-most in the league over the last two seasons, and the Lions locked in his status as a core player with a nice contract extension this offseason.

St. Brown has put himself into the conversation as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. So it's not a surprise he made the top-10 in ESPN's ranking at the position (subscription required), as they continue to roll out their surveys of NFL executives, coaches and scouts for each position.

St. Brown was an honorable mention in 2023's rankings rankings from ESPN. This year, he's at No. 7. One evaluator had him at No. 5, while another had him outside the top-10.

"St. Brown famously watched 16 receivers get drafted ahead of him in 2021. From that group, only Chase has more receiving yards than St. Brown, whose Year 3 breakout vaulted him from the honorable mention category to Tier 2 alongside Lamb, Adams and Brown."

Amon-Ra St. Brown set to keep climbing WR rankings

The overall sentiment about St. Brown from the evaluators ESPN surveyed is not surprising.

"Has elite football instincts for the position," an NFL coordinator said. "Understands how to attack leverage. Runs hard every play. Plays inside and outside. Makes all the tough catches on high-leverage downs. Blocks, plays physical. The only thing he doesn't do is win outside the red line [close to the sideline], but that's not how the game works anyway."

"He's really tough," an NFC offensive coach said. "You know where the ball is going on third down and he's usually coming up with it."

St. Brown's size (6-foot, 202 pounds) was mentioned as the "biggest issue" with him. There was also one executive who tried to offer a negative thought about St. Brown.

"That scheme and what [offensive coordinator] Ben Johnson has done makes him look really good. Not taking anything away from him, but he's more dependent on the scheme than some of the other receivers on this list."

That last note, a feeble anonymous attempt to knock St. Brown, makes it seem like he is dependent on scheme and play-calling more than most receivers. According to Pro Football Focus, among wide receivers with at least 65 targets last season, he had the sixth-best drop rate (3.3 percent)), along with being tied sixth in yards per route run (2.63), tied for ninth in missed tackles forced (17), and tied for sixth sixth in contested-catch rate (50 percent). None of those things are scheme-dependent.

St. Brown may take another step up in production this year. If he does. he won't land outside the top-five in this same ranking next year.