It may not seem too crazy of a claim for someone who finished as the WR7 last year, but a push into the elite tier of fantasy wideouts is more than within reason for Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Following a successful rookie season, St. Brown flat-out dominated in 2022, going for 106-1161-6 on 146 targets for the up-and-coming Lions. Young receivers typically break out in their second to third year, so while it appears St. Brown could have hit his peak at age 23, we still think there’s a higher ceiling that the Sun God can achieve.
Outside of a minor ankle injury, the only news coming out of Lions camp regarding St. Brown has been good news. With reports that he’s still by far and away Jared Goff’s favorite option as he dominates the target share, we’d honestly expect nothing less from the standout receiver.
“We get so used to St. Brown making every play and being a security blanket for Goff that we may take him for granted sometimes,” wrote Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com. “St. Brown has been terrific so far in camp. He completely dominated the third day of practice with six touchdowns in a 10-play stretch in 7-on-7 and team periods. The way he’s looked in camp, 100-catches and 1,000 yards is about the floor for him.”
If that’s going to be the floor for him, we can expect another top-10 finish from St. Brown. But what’s going to put him into the next tier of top-five receivers will be a jump in his touchdown production. With five and six in his first two seasons, we’d love to see St. Brown push into that 8-12 range.
The departure of goal-line touchdown vulture Jamaal Williams will play a significant factor in that, as he ran in 17(!) scores last season. Personally, I don’t think newcomers David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs will hit that total.
Regarding target share, the Lions also lost D’Andre Swift and his 70 targets along with DJ Clark and TJ Hockenson. Sure Gibbs and Jameson Williams are likely to be more involved, along with rookie Sam LaPorta, but keep in mind Williams will be suspended for the first six games of this season. And how much are you really expecting from Kalif Raymond and Josh Reynolds?
The bottom line is, St. Brown is far and away the best option in this offense and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if he’s near the top of the league in target share.
St. Brown is currently going 13th overall in Underdog Best Ball while sitting at 15th overall in The Wolf’s 2023 fantasy rankings.
“I get so many fantasy messages. It’s actually insane,” St. Brown told Pardon My Take. “I don’t understand what the big deal is, why people are so obsessed with fantasy. Shoot, my message is, ‘If you pick me, you will be in good hands.’ That’s about it.”
