Why fantasy managers should roll with Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown after two games
In this edition of the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast, Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski discuss the rise of the former USC wide receiver, including how his second season is just getting started in Detroit.
Video Transcript
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MATT HARMON: How can we honestly start anywhere but with Amon-Ra St. Brown? Eight straight games with at least eight catches for St Brown. That ties Michael Thomas and Antonio Brown for an NFL record.
The guy has a 35.3% target share today, 29% of the air yards. He's right up there with DJ Chark for the team lead in that category, three end zone targets. Scott, why is Amon-Ra St. Brown not a wide receiver one for the rest of the season?
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: No, he sure is. And as much as we love him with the air yards and winning downfield, they're also scheming him the ball. They're handing him the ball. He's winning in tight spaces. He's winning at the goal line.
There's nothing-- there's no route he can't run right now. And it's important to note with both these teams, because look, Goff's not a star and Wentz isn't a star. But they're good enough, and they both are surrounded by so much good skill talent.
And carnival-- I think the carnival's going to apply to both these teams. These teams are going to blow leads sometimes. They're going to keep the other team in the game. They're going to play at a fast tempo when they fall behind.
Wentz played very poorly in the first half. The Lions had a three-touchdown lead. Didn't matter. The Lions will escort you down the field and make a game out of it. Detroit's also covered 13 of their last 19 games.
Despite only four wins, they're 4 and 15 straight up, 13 and 6 ATS. They are an ATM if you've been betting on them, although in this game, they were actually favored. But again, Wentz and Goff are good enough.
St. Brown-- I love it. We've seen this with Curtis Samuel, right, who I know you've been a longtime fan of. How do we get this guy the ball? Sometimes, just put it in his belly and let him run with it. He had one long run and another chunk play run.
Just-- my heart goes all aflutter because they're making him a featured part of this offense. That's a pretty big statement for a team that has TJ Hockenson, a team that has D'Andre Swift, a team that just drafted a receiver in the first round in Jameson Williams, although he's a few weeks away-- maybe a few months away. And obviously, DJ Chark's a pretty good football player too.
Right now, this team is about St. Brown. And I'm at the point now where, if you tell me somebody went to USC-- it's like when the Steelers draft receiver, we get all excited.
MATT HARMON: Seriously.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: The USC wide receiver room-- it hurt not to have Michael Pittman here today. And I feel like the Colts could play for nine hours, and they wouldn't have scored. But Drake London looks the part. St. Brown's been terrific. That USC receiver room, fight on. Shoutout to Melissa Caskey, our former colleague, who's a big USC fan.
But I'm all about this Lions team. They are a primary screen team for me because they're going to score and they're going to give it up. And when they get in the end zone, we know where the ball's going. It's the guys that we're playing for fantasy and guys that we have high ranks for. And then today, they exceeded them.
MATT HARMON: You're so right that the offense is designed around Amon-Ra St Brown. And the offense is good because-- this is what killed me about the whole, like, well, he did with this team when his teammates weren't there last year. I mean, that, like, argument is so-- like, everybody's got to take the L on that, obviously.
But watch the games. And, like, he's good. He's so good in that role and he's so great at what they ask him to do. So this should just continue.
You know, I had somebody-- I told somebody this weekend that, like, to take a package that included Tee Higgins over a package that included Amon-Ra St. Brown, and I already regret it. Like, I think that St Brown could probably be better than Tee Higgins this year, although they got back Drake London in that package. And I think Drake London's going to be great. We'll talk about him later. But--
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Would St. Brown be a third-round pick, a second-round pick? Where would he fall if we were re-drafting?
MATT HARMON: I think he'd be second. I think he'd be a second.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Second? OK.
MATT HARMON: Because there's just no reasonable story to tell yourself where this stops. That's kind of where we're at right now with him because it comes back to talent. It comes back to ability. And the way they deploy that talent on the field is just so good.
Like, I've been calling him Bud Light Cooper Kupp since before the Lions drafted him, Scott. And I'm retiring that nickname right now because it's too disre-- and no shade to Bud Light. But it's just too disrespectful to Amon-Ra St. Brown because he is that good. He's not Bud Light Cooper Kupp anymore. He's just, like-- I think he's, like, right up there with-- eventually, he's going to be as good as Cooper Kupp is.
