Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown gets more props from Pro Football Focus

By any measure you want to find, surface stats or deeper numbers, Amon-Ra St. Brown has been one of the best and most productive wide receivers in the NFL over the last two-plus seasons. Thus, the Detroit Lions made him one of the highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL this offseason (and the highest-paid for about 24 hours)

Earlier this offseason, Pro Football Focus ranked St. Brown as a top-five outside wide receiver, ranked by yards per route run, in 2023. PFF also had him as their fourth-best wide receiver against press coverage last year.

There is no reason to think St. Brown won't continue to produce at a high level for years to come. There doesn't need to be more proof how good he is at this point, as it also feels sure that analytics will hold his work in high regard.

But, PFF has given us a little bit more proof.

According to PFF, Amon-Ra St. Brown was great at two particular routes in 2023

Gordon McGuiness of PFF recently revealed the highest-graded wide receivers on 10 different route types last year. The general criteria is at least 10 targets on each route, with the threshold lowered to five for comeback routes.

St. Brown was the highest-graded wide receiver on slant (97.3) and hitch (97.1) routes.

"St. Brown’s three touchdown receptions on slants in 2023 trailed only Jakobi Meyers. He averaged 5.78 yards per route run, turning 15 targets into 11 receptions for 185 yards."

"St. Brown was the league’s highest-graded receiver on hitch routes, too, recording 24 receptions for 240 yards and a touchdown."

It's no surprise St. Brown got the best marks on slants and hitch routes. Those routes the things he does best on display, though it's fair to say those routes are only a small piece of the whole picture for how good he is. Those routes also match well with Jared Goff's strengths as a quarterback-timing, accuracy, anticipation, when the opponent blitzes...

St. Brown and Brandon Aiyuk were the only two wide receivers to get the highest grades on two different routes. And no, that doesn't mean there's evidence Aiyuk should get the same (or a better) contract than St. Brown did.