Given his rise to stardom, it may be hard to remember when Amon-Ra St. Brown wasn't dominant.
But St. Brown got off to a slow start as a rookie in 2021. The Lions were playing the Los Angeles Rams in St. Brown's hometown, and he was ready for a big day. Instead, nothing happened.
As St. Brown told Barstool Sports' "Pardon My Take" podcast, the breakout would happen later against the Minnesota Vikings when he hauled in 10 passes for 86 yards and the game-winning score. It was then he felt a corner had been turned:
"Early on the first few games, I didn't get too many targets. I remember my rookie year we played the Rams in (Los Angeles). Jared (Goff's) little homecoming, (he) just got traded. I had my whole family at the game. My Friends, this that and the other. It was like the day before my birthday or the day after my birthday and I remember going out there playing, and I didn't get one target the whole game. Not one target. Everyone was there watching. It was kind like '(expletive) I'm in L.A., got no targets.' It's cool though. I remember the Vikings game when I caught the game winner, I had like 10 catches, a lot of catches and ever since that game.....Ever since then, I just never looked back."Amon-Ra St. Brown
Amon-Ra St. Brown explains how his post-practice routine came to be
St. Brown rarely drops a pass. He works on his hands, famously catching 202 balls off a JUGS machine after every practice.
How did that routine come to be? The story invoves his father John Brown, and an encounter with a young football player when he was growing up in California.
"When I was growing up I had two older brothers. We did everything together. We were at this one seven-on-seven thing, there was a kid, he was out there catching everything. My dad went up to his dad, he's like 'what do you guys do to have such good hands?' The father told my dad 'we have a jugs machine, we catch 200 balls a day.' So my dad being the guy he is went online, got a jugs machine and I remember the first day it came in I was like 'shoot we finally got a jugs machine, this is crazy, you can shoot balls, you don't have to throw it' because we used to just throw balls to each other. Then he told us we got to catch 202 (balls) because buddy over there was catching 200."Amon-Ra St. Brown
That number clearly stuck with St. Brown, as does another number we know well by now (16 wide receivers drafted before him). There's no resting on any laurels here, as St. Brown sets a tone for his teammates.