One of the most surprising developments from the Detroit Lions’ Week 1 victory over the Los Angeles Rams was the lack of production from All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. Over the course of his three-year career, St. Brown has averaged 6.4 catches and 72.0 yards per game. On Sunday night, he managed just three catches for 13 yards—the worst output of his career in games in which he played at least half of the offense’s snaps.
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So what happened? Did the Rams do something specific to take St. Brown away? Was this just a statistical oddity caused by a focus on the running game and getting Jameson Williams more involved? And, most importantly, is there any reason to believe this could be a problem going forward?
That’s one of our main topics in this week’s Midweek Mailbag, which kicks off our discussion. Here’s a part of that discussion.
Erik Schlitt believes the Ram's defense is specifically equipped to cover the middle of the field well. While they had some sudden overturn at the linebacker position, Los Angeles utilizes three safety looks to help add another athletic defender to the box.
“Talking to some Rams writers ahead of the game, it seemed like they were really trying to clog up the middle with some safeties,” Schlitt said. “They use a safety as their primary nickel. Also, in dime, they shift that safety into linebacker-type of spots. So I had the impression watching live it was more about the Rams trying to take that away.”
Personally, I had a different viewpoint with the benefit of rewatching the game. While St. Brown’s split between the slot (28 snaps) and outside (32) was nearly identical to his splits last year, the type of routes he was running seemed drastically different. While there is no public data to track the average depth of route run, it certainly seemed like St. Brown was running deeper routes than normal, and that doesn’t play to his skill sets.
On top of that, I believe the middle of the field was open for a large portion of the game, but Jared Goff just missed some opportunities, particularly with Kalif Raymond, who didn’t even see a single pass throw his way.
This is the one that stood out to me most. Surprised Goff went to Jamo when Kalif was the one breaking open over the middle. pic.twitter.com/uIUvtKiqua
— Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) September 10, 2024
Overall, my level of concern that this lack of production could continue for St. Brown is essentially zero.
“I don’t think the Rams did anything to take him away,” I said. “I just think he was not in his ideal position lined out outside, running deeper routes. I think the Lions ran the ball a lot and didn’t run a lot of offensive plays in general. So my concern level of this being like a blueprint for teams in the future is very small.”
Here are other topics we discussed in this week’s episode, including timestamps of those discussions:
- 12:40 — Was the Lions’ defensive strategy of keeping everything in front of them smart? Was there a lack of adjustment, or did it play out like the Lions wanted?
- 19:40 — What was with Jack Campbell’s lack of snaps?
- 25:00 — Why do the Lions typically run with one running back for an entire drive rather than mixing the two together?
- 31:50 — What will the Lions do with the 53rd (currently vacant) spot on the roster?
- 41:25 — Is there any chance the Lions reverse course and put Brian Branch back as a full-time nickel?
- 43:20 — Why was James Houston a healthy scratch vs. the Rams?
- 47:00 — Will Levi Onwuzurike’s role change when DJ Reader returns?
Listen to the entire show below, or catch the full replays over on YouTube and Twitch.
