Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has the most receptions in his 2021 draft class over the last two seasons, with 196. He keeps tabs on the 16 wide receivers taken before him, most of which have not done anything close to what he has done so far in his career. Monday's release of this year's Madden ratings for wide receivers may create a fresh list for him, since players of this era care about things like that.
On Tuesday morning, ESPN continued their rollout of position rankings based on their polling of NFL players, coaches and executives with the top-10 wide receivers (subscription required). St. Brown is not in the top-10, which goes like this.
1. Justin Jefferson
2. Davante Adams
3. Ja'Marr Chase
4. Tyreek Hill
5. Cooper Kupp
6. Stefon Diggs
7. A.J. Brown
8. DK Metcalf
9. Terry McLaurin
10. CeeDee Lamb
Any quarrel with that top-10 aside, St. Brown is also not among the six honorable mentions--Deebo Samuel, Mike Evans, Tee Higgins, Garrett Wilson, Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith. Down in the 10 who "also received votes", St. Brown finally appears.
Amon-Ra St. Brown snubbed in ESPN voting of NFL's best receivers
As noted by Mike Payton of AtoZ Sports, St. Brown had more catches and/or yards than a healthy portion of the 16 receivers named on the list or as honorable mentions last year. Yet, in this league-wide scope, he was set aside.
Ultimately, the Lions will command more respect on lists like this if they carry last year's momentum into this season. But if Jared Goff is worthy of an honorable mention among his peers in this ESPN voting, St. Brown is worthy of at least that among his peers at his position.
So with the value of this voting being low for some anyway, to say nothing of any vitriol toward ESPN specifically, St. Brown's place in the wide receiver voting may remove its value completely.