Entering Week 18, one NFC (and NFL, for that matter) wide receiver has more receptions this season than Amon-Ra St. Brown. Four in the league have more receiving yards, and four have more touchdowns.
The Detroit Lions had five players selected for the Pro Bowl this week, with seven more players landing as alternates. St. Brown is surely one of that first quintet, right? As you know by now, he is not. He is a first alternate, with good odds to be making the trip to Orlando for the Pro Bowl Games as long as the Lions aren't in the Super Bowl.
St. Brown's work ethic is well-known, and he carries a huge chip on his shoulder after being the 17th wide receiver taken in the 2021 draft. It's easy to point to the Pro Bowl snub as more fuel for his competitive fire.
Amon-Ra St. Brown reacts to Pro Bowl snub just as you'd expect he would
Speaking to reporters after Thursday's practice, St. Brown got right to the point about how the Pro Bowl snub made him feel.
"I was hot," St. Brown said Thursday. "The receivers that got picked are all great players, but I was hot."
CeeDee Lamb, A.J. Brown, Mike Evans and Puka Nacua are the wide receivers on the initial NFC Pro Bowl roster. Only Lamb is better than St. Brown in all three main categories-catches, yards and touchdowns.
Lamb: 122 catches, 1,651 yards, 10 touchdowns
Brown: 105 catches, 1,447 yards, 7 touchdowns
Nacua: 101 catches, 1,445 yards, 5 touchdowns
St. Brown: 112 catches, 1,371 yards, 9 touchdowns
Evans: 76 catches, 1,233 yards, 13 touchdowns
Going further, St, Brown leads the league with eight 100-yard games this season. His Pro Football Focus grade (90.0) is better than Nacua (88.2) and Evans (83.4), and close to Lamb (90.7) and Brown (90.2). Among wide receivers with at least 75 targets this season, his 72.7 percent catch rate is third in the league according to Pro Football Reference.
When asked if the Pro Bowl snub angered him like his aforementioned draft slide, St. Brown again was concise to describe how he felt and how it will motivate him even further.
"I guess. I mean, I was pissed. "I guess I didn’t do enough during the season, so I gotta go harder," he said.
An angrier and more motivated St. Brown is bad news for the Lions' upcoming opponents.