SEATTLE (AP) — Amon-Ra St. Brown kept track of all the wide receivers who were taken in the NFL draft last spring before he was finally selected with the 112th pick by the Detroit Lions.
It wasn’t lost on St. Brown that a receiver drafted 56 spots ahead of him — Seattle’s Dee Eskridge — was on the other sideline Sunday. And it was St. Brown having a much bigger impact.
“I follow most of them. I know one was on the other team,” St. Brown said. “I follow a lot of them, but I’m just doing what I can to help this team win and keep going.”
St. Brown starred for Detroit on an otherwise forgettable day as the Lions lost 51-29 to Seattle. After weeks of being competitive in victories, ties and close losses, Detroit fell behind early and was unable to stop the Seahawks’ momentum.
The Lions allowed their most points since giving up 52 to New Orleans in 2017.
While Detroit was unable to slow down Seattle’s offense, St. Brown was doing his part to keep the Lions in the game. He finished with eight receptions for 111 yards and a touchdown and had two carries for 23 yards and another score.
It was his fifth straight game with at least eight catches, something only 15 NFL receivers have done since 1950. St. Brown joined Leonard Thompson in 1981 as the only Lions receivers to score a touchdown rushing and receiving in the same game. The last Lions receiver to rush for a touchdown was Calvin Johnson in 2007.
St. Brown also became the first Detroit rookie to have touchdown catches in three straight games since Dave Middleton in 1955.
“It’s one thing to do it once, and you feel a little bit better after twice,” Campbell said. “But now when you started stacking them like he is, that’s a consistent player. That’s a productive, consistent player, and those guys I think are hard to find. So I’m glad we got him.”
St. Brown has 43 receptions on 57 targets over the past five games as he’s become the Lions’ primary receiving option. On Sunday, he grabbed a 7-yard TD pass from Tim Boyle in the third quarter.
The bigger highlight was his 26-yard TD run in the first half. St. Brown shook a tackle at the line of scrimmage, then spun out of a tackle attempt by Quandre Diggs and sprinted into the end zone.
“Running the ball has always been, I would say kind of natural for me. I love running the ball and having the ball in my hands,” St. Brown said.
Eskridge, drafted late in the second round by Seattle, has struggled to make an impact. He had one reception for 7 yards and one rush for 30 yards against the Lions.
St. Brown, drafted in the fourth round out of Southern California, has 82 catches for 803 yards and four touchdowns. His older brother, Equanimeous St. Brown, is a receiver for the Green Bay Packers.
“It was gut-wrenching. So it does motivate me,” St. Brown said of the draft. “Every time I’m doing something well, people are patting my back, I just think of those 16 (wide receivers) that went before me and how I felt, and that just keeps me going.”
