Detroit Lions at Atlanta Falcons in Week 16
Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece from MLive.com reporter Kyle Meinke.
ATLANTA -- Brad Holmes had just wrapped up his first NFL draft as the new general manager of the Detroit Lions. Then he hopped on a Zoom call with a small group of reporters and was asked what he thought was the most important thing he had accomplished over the last three days.
“Well from the sounds of it, after we drafted (Amon-Ra) St. Brown, I felt like people finally would get off my ass about not getting a receiver,” he said.
He was joking. At least I think he was joking. Holmes chuckled when he said it anyway, clearly acknowledging one of the emerging concerns about his roster -- that he didn’t draft a single receiver on Day 2, after not drafting a single receiver on Day 1, after declining to prioritize the position in any meaningful way in free agency, all despite losing every starter from that position.
Turns out the concern was well-placed. The Lions went from Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones and Danny Amendola to what could be best described as (sorry, this is a family publication). I don’t know if there was a worse group of wideouts in any training camp across the league, and that was before they cut one projected starter (Breshad Perriman) before losing another to an injury in the opener (Tyrell Williams). Neither is even with the team anymore, which forced Detroit to turn to guys like KhaDarel Hodge, Trinity Benson and Geronimo Allison for starts this season. Not snaps. Starts. Yes, in the NFL.
Not to absolve Jared Goff of anything, because Goff certainly shares responsibility for how badly he played in the first half of the season, but perhaps it’s no surprise Goff played as badly as he did with guys like that.
Then a funny thing happened.
The kid has caught fire, catching 35 passes in the last four weeks alone. That’s more than every wide receiver in the league not named Cooper Kupp. Hey, that’s pretty good! Those catches, by the way, racked up 340 yards. That’s more than every wide receiver in the league not named Kupp, Tee Higgins or Justin Jefferson. Hey, that’s pretty good too!
Just look at what St. Brown did to Arizona last week, when he caught a 37-yard touchdown pass to help the one-win Lions put some distance between themselves and the No. 1 seed in the entire conference. He finished that game with eight catches, a team high, for 90 yards, a career high.
“He’s a stud,” Goff said after that game. “He’s a stud. I’ll say it again: He’s a stud. He’s a stud.”
OK, Jared we get it. But just in case there remained any doubt about the emergence of one of the biggest Day 3 steals in the entire league, St. Brown was somehow better on Sunday in Atlanta. He caught another eight passes for another 91 yards -- another career high, by the way -- and scored another touchdown.
The Lions still lost 20-16 against the Falcons, but they were in that game until the final 33 seconds. A big reason for that was the improved play of Tim Boyle, who started at quarterback while Goff was in isolation with a COVID infection. And there was nobody Boyle leaned on more heavily than St. Brown. Just as Goff leaned on him for at least eight completions in the three games before that.
You know how many rookies in NFL history have ever caught eight passes in four straight games?
That list is Odell Beckham. That’s it. That’s the list.
“I think I can make any catch that’s in my radius,” St. Brown said before boarding the team bus after the game. “If I can put my hand on it, I can make it. Obviously each play is different, but any ball that’s in my vicinity, I think I can make the catch. And if I don’t make it, I’m not worried, because I know I can catch the next one. I just want to not worry about it.”
Just listen to that confidence. St. Brown had to hear 111 names be called before his in the draft, and now he’s starting to play and produce and even sound like one of the better receivers in the league. That’s player development. And I think it’s stories like this that people are really missing when they lose their minds over how guys like St. Brown playing better in so-called meaningless games could affect draft positioning.
Look, I get it. Picking first is incrementally better than picking second, which is incrementally better than picking third, and so on. I understand how numbers work. And the difference between those picks does widen when there is a Peyton Manning-type prize at the top. But this draft isn’t that. Nobody can decide who the No. 1 prospect even is, or when the first quarterback should be taken either.
The Lions are already guaranteed a pick in the top five, by the way, and one more loss will lock them into the top two. The last time they picked No. 2, they added the greatest defensive tackle in franchise history (Ndamukong Suh). The time they picked No. 2 before that, they added perhaps the greatest player in franchise history not named Barry (Calvin Johnson).
Draft position is important, but player evaluation and development are usually far more determinative to the success or failure of any draft pick, or any draft class for that matter. That’s true for everyone, and it’s especially true for a rebuilding team like the Lions, who have such a long way to go before they’re ready to win.
And it’s already happening. Rookie Penei Sewell is turning into a monster at right tackle. Another rookie, defensive tackle Alim McNeill, just racked up his second sack in three weeks. When was the last time the Lions had an interior lineman with at least two sacks in an entire season? (Please don’t answer that.) Another rookie, cornerback Jerry Jacobs, emerged as one of the best undrafted players in the league before he suffered an ACL injury a couple weeks ago.
Just look at outside linebacker Charles Harris. He isn’t a rookie, but he is a former first-round bust that Detroit grabbed out of the recycling bin for $1.75 million last offseason. That contract ranks 116th among players at just his position, in case you were curious. Now that guy has hit quarterbacks 15 times this season -- nearly triple anyone else on this team, mind you -- and pressured them 42 times overall. That’s top-20 in the league, for money that doesn’t even crack the top 100.
Just look at Jalen Reeves-Maybin. The last staff put his butt on the bench and left it there because he wasn’t big enough to play in Matt Patricia’s defense. Now Matt Patricia is history, so his awful defense, and the new staff is letting Reeves-Maybin start at linebacker. He’s played increasingly well, too -- and hey, what do you know, that guy just forced a fumble that gave the Lions a chance to win in the final minute in Atlanta.
Just look at running back Craig Reynolds. That guy bounced between four teams over the last three years and had exactly 1 yard to show for it. Then he was signed off his couch in August, scored a preseason touchdown before he even had a chance to practice with the team, earned a spot on the practice squad because of it -- and then when injuries and COVID laid waste to the depth chart this month, he went out there against Denver and Arizona and racked up more rushing yards than anyone else in the league in that stretch. It helped the Lions win a game they had little business even being in, too.
And that’s a bad thing?
Jared Goff is no young guy at this point, but he’s played so much better down the stretch too. He was the fourth-highest rated quarterback in the league over his last four games, threw a walk-off touchdown pass against Minnesota and led Detroit to wins in two of his last three starts overall, despite being surrounded by a roster of misfit toys. And that’s a bad thing? To see a quarterback left for dead in Los Angeles suddenly playing well enough to maybe, just maybe, stabilize the most important position in the game for Detroit?
“I see us improving,” head coach Dan Campbell said. “You’d look for improvement out of every player in every group and I see it. We’re playing better football right now than we did when we started and that’s what you’re looking for.”
Yep. That’s not a bad thing either, even if it does cost Detroit a spot or two in April. And nowhere is that more true than with St. Brown, who just became the first Lions rookie to rack up 90 receiving yards in back-to-back games since 1955. He became the first Lions rookie to rack up eight catches in four straight games since, well, ever. No rookie has done what he’s just done. Not even Calvin Johnson.
St. Brown’s late-season tear helped the Lions win two games with a roster that is currently held together by bubble gum and duct tape. And that’s a bad thing? To see the 17th receiver taken in the draft catch more footballs than every wideout taken before him except Jaylen Waddle? To see a guy who had to hear 111 names before his on draft nights -- plural -- become one of the biggest steals of the whole thing?
To see him learn how to, yes, win games in the NFL?
This, dear reader, this is what draft success actually looks like.
“Saint has come such a long way, and where he came from was still a very good professional athlete,” Boyle said. “His ability to see coverage, his ability to win versus man. He’s smart, he gets it. He’s a big dude, he’s fast. Like I said, there’s not enough you can say about St. Brown and we are very, very lucky to have him on this team. And for him to be a rookie and having the success he’s having, hopefully it only gives him confidence moving forward. Yeah, he’s a fan favorite for the quarterbacks no doubt.”
At least we can finally get off Brad Holmes’ ass about getting a receiver.
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