During the NFL draft this year, Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes made a joke.
At least, I think it was a joke. Maybe we should call it a jest filled with playful truth, because the fact is the NFL draft contains so much scrutiny it would make anyone a little slappy over its three-day-long decision-making marathon.
The joke came after the final day of the first NFL draft Holmes had run. He was asked what his most important accomplishment was in the draft for the future of the organization.
LIONS GRADES: Tim Boyle better this time, save for 2 critical mistakes, in loss to Falcons
“Well,” he said in his news conference, “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.”
It was the first time I remember thinking I might like Holmes. It was a funny and refreshingly honest take and one that told us he was aware of the mounting criticism over his decision to draft three straight linemen while waiting until the draft’s final day to address a glaring need at receiver.
Eight months later, no one is joking because Amon-Ra Julian Heru J. St. Brown made a name for himself on Sunday — and perhaps for Holmes.
St. Brown had his best game of the season and verified his status as the steal of the draft among receivers, a fourth-round pick from Southern Cal who has climbed near the top of the pile of rookie receivers, where he stood in fifth place for yards before Sunday.
The Lions lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 20-16, but St. Brown delivered a gutsy, gritty and integral performance that allowed his 2-12-1 team to get even that close to road victory against a 7-8 team. St. Brown’s numbers say a lot — nine catches for a season-high 91 yards, a touchdown and a season-high 110 yards from scrimmage — and yet they don’t tell the whole story.
Backup quarterback Tim Boyle made his second NFL start Sunday and only his first start since late November. He was going to need help, he was going to need targets, and St. Brown was the bull’s-eye. The man whose nickname is “Saint” saved Boyle and the Lions’ bacon on Sunday.
Boyle couldn’t say enough about St. Brown after the game, but he still tried, invoking his family background and his work ethic.
“His ability to see coverage, his ability to win versus man,” Boyle told reporters. “He’s smart, he gets it. He’s a big dude. He’s fast. I mean, there’s 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.”
St. Brown made play after play and accounted for six of the Lions’ 19 first downs.
“He is improving,” coach Dan Campbell told reporters after the game, “and there’s been a lot that we put on his shoulders these last few weeks because he’s capable, that’s why. He is improving and he’s steady and he’s reliable. He’s in a great place.
“He’s one of those guys that, as a play-caller, I trust all the time and I know the quarterbacks do, too. But I would say for all those receivers I feel that way. I feel like they’ve really taken strides over the last three or four weeks and everything collectively. But yeah, St. Brown is continuing to grow.”
[ Lions coach Dan Campbell explains conservative late-game FG decision ]
At this point, I feel like St. Brown has the potential to be the Lions’ next Golden Tate, a slot receiver who can also play on the outside and fight for yards after the catch. In short, a versatile weapon.
This is why, in the interest of full disclosure, I was one of the critics who was tailgating Holmes’ backside about drafting a receiver in the draft. It’s very difficult to find budget-friendly offensive playmakers in free agency and despite such a big need at the position, it felt like Holmes took the easiest and safest approach to selecting players in his first draft by spending his first three picks on linemen.
Everyone loves to spout the old cliché about building through the trenches, even though few people know what that means. It just feels like one of those football truisms, doesn’t it? Big guys doing big-guy stuff no one can explain.
Yet Levi Onwuzurike, a second-round pick, has had a poor season and has almost entirely escaped the criticism he would have faced as an offensive playmaker. Right tackle Penei Sewell was the seventh overall pick and he’s had a good season, proving it’s imperative to draft offensive lineman high — except that the Lions routed the Arizona Cardinals with an undrafted center, an undrafted left guard and a fifth-round right guard.
I’m not trying to go another 12 rounds on Holmes’ first draft. What I am trying to emphasize is how important it is for Holmes to draft more receivers, and specifically to trust whatever skill, evaluation and instincts led him to draft an underrated player like St. Brown.
Of the five wide receivers who played Sunday, only Brown and Tom Kennedy, an exclusive-rights free agent, are guaranteed to return next season. Holmes has swung and missed signing free agents Breshad Perriman and Tyrell Williams and trading for Trinity Benson. The jury is out on injured Quintez Cephus.
JEFF SEIDEL: Don’t let Lions’ final play cover up the exciting creativity that kept it close
All this means is that as we near the end of this regime’s first season, the Lions’ receiving corps is in little better shape than before Holmes and Campbell took over. It’s been hard — and probably unfair — to evaluate Jared Goff and this offense because of it.
I hope Holmes feels proud of what St. Brown did on Sunday, as well as this whole season, and rightfully takes some credit. I hope that encourages him to mine the draft, early and late, for pass-catchers who might bomb, but also might ignite this offense next season.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.