Amon-Ra St. Brown has been one of the most sure-handed receivers in the NFL since being drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2021.
And while that hasn’t totally changed this fall, the three-time Pro Bowler has seen his drop rate tick up to a career-high 5.3% this season, according to Pro Football Reference, though he said he’s not fretting his performance.
“Drops happen to the best of us but I’m not worried about one drop, two drops,” St Brown said Thursday, Nov. 20, in Allen Park. “I’ve caught so many balls in my life that the next one comes, I’m going to catch it and I’m going to catch a lot more than I don’t.”
St. Brown leads the Lions with 66 catches, 735 yards and eight receiving touchdowns this season.
He also has five drops on 94 targets, including several at inopportune times.
In a Week 6 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, St. Brown dropped a would-be fourth-and-2 conversion just before halftime. The Chiefs scored a touchdown on the ensuing possession and doubled up with another just after halftime to pull away with a 30-17 victory.
Last week, he caught just two of 12 targets – a career-low 16.7% catch rate – for 42 yards in a 16-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Several of the incomplete passes glanced off his hands, including a potential third-and-5 conversion early in the third quarter.
“Anything that touches my hand I think I have to catch,” St. Brown said. “So any ball that touches my hand I feel like I can catch, whether it’s the full hand, two hands, the tip of your finger, I feel I got to make it.”
While St. Brown and Lions quarterback Jared Goff have enjoyed a close on-field connection in their five seasons together, their timing was noticeably off last week as Goff dealt with regular pressure up the middle and St. Brown drew extra attention from the Eagles defense in the absence of tight end Sam LaPorta.
Both St. Brown and Goff downplayed their connectivity issues and said there’s nothing to worry about going forward.
“We’re good,” Goff said this week. “I consider that an outlier for what we’ve done in our career together. You learn from it, you look at it, we talk about different ways we can get better.“
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Amon-Ra St. Brown drops are piling up for Detroit Lions
