Amon-Ra St. Brown played his entire rookie season in Detroit without dropping a pass.
Let that sink in for a second…
St. Brown had 119 passes thrown his way in 2021 as a fourth-round pick out of USC. He caught 90 of those, with at least eight catches on at least 10 targets in each of the Lions’ last six games, a period that coincides with new offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and head coach Dan Campbell taking more control over the offense. But St. Brown did not drop a single pass, according to Field Yates of ESPN.
Most catches in the NFL in 2021 without a drop:
Amon-Ra St. Brown: 90
22 more than anyone else.
Huge 2022 coming up for him. pic.twitter.com/p0cpgJF40Z
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 30, 2022
Other sources dispute Yates’ claim that St. Brown did not have a drop, which is an unofficial and arbitrary statistic. Pro Football Focus had St. Brown for two, both in the Week 2 loss in Green Bay. Pro Football Reference logged one drop for St. Brown as a rookie.
I went back and rewatched the Week 2 game. It was easy to ascertain which passes PFF credited as drops since St. Brown caught three of his five targets in Green Bay. The first “drop”, right before halftime, did hit St. Brown in his hands along the sideline, but it appears the defensive back made a play on the ball just before St. Brown did. The second, with just over 2:00 to play in the game, was not an accurate pass from Jared Goff.
The Lions as a team did a very good job at not dropping passes. Per NBC Sports, Detroit had 13 total drops in 17 games. Only three teams had fewer drops on the season.
