Emptying the notebook before heading out on summer vacation …
Amon-Ra St. Brown feels a bit overlooked this offseason.
The Detroit Lions overhauled their wide receiver room this spring, signing DJ Chark and trading up to draft Jameson Williams, but St. Brown remains the Lions’ best receiver and will be a key cog in the offense this fall.
“Saint’s the guy,” Lions receivers coach Antwaan Randle El said last week.
Asked about St. Brown being the forgotten man of the Lions receiving corps this offseason, Randle El said that has not been the case internally.
“That’s the dude in terms of like he gets it and he continues to get it, and it’s good to see,” Randle El said. “Second year, same focus — even greater focus. Like, ‘Coach, teach me this.’ … Like all right, this guy wants to learn over and over again. So it’s always good to see and he’s back doing it again and still making those plays.”
A fourth-round pick out of USC last spring, St. Brown got off to an understandably slow start as a rookie with 43 yards receiving in the Lions’ first three games. By the end of the season, though, St. Brown was one of the most impactful receivers in the league.
He caught at least eight passes in each of the Lions’ final six games, scored all six of his touchdowns in that span and had 621 yards from scrimmage (including 61 rushing).
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St. Brown’s surge in production came as running back D’Andre Swift and tight end T.J. Hockenson battled injuries. Both are healthy entering training camp, and with an improved cast around him at receiver, some have wondered if St. Brown’s numbers will dip in Year 2.
Randle El said he expects the opposite to happen — for St. Brown to be an even bigger part of the offense.
With two capable deep threats on the outside in Chark and, eventually, Williams, and an offensive weapon at tight end in Hockenson and the makings of a solid running game, St. Brown could find more room to roam in the middle of the field and improve upon the touchdown and yards-per-catch (10.1 ypc) numbers he posted as a rookie, when he had one drop in 119 targets.
“That’s going to help,” Randle El said.
Next big thing
No one foresaw Charles Harris’ breakout season at this time last year.
A first-round pick in 2017, Harris spent most of last spring working with the second- and third-team defense and figured to be a rotational player at best on the Lions’ defensive line.
He played 15 snaps and did not make a tackle in the opener, then turned into the Lions’ best defensive lineman almost overnight. Harris had sacks in four straight games early in the season, finished with a career-high 7.5 for the season and was one of the Lions’ best run defenders.
So who’s the leading candidate for a Harris-like breakout this fall?
Defensive line coach Todd Wash said third-year defensive lineman Jashon Cornell could be that guy.
“Jashon really flashed this spring,” Wash said. “But right now we’re still in gym class. We’re not running the football. That’s the area we got to get better in once we start training camp. But Jashon is a guy that’s under the radar right now. I thought he had a really good spring and I look forward to seeing what he can being healthy again.”
A seventh-round pick out of Ohio State in 2020, Cornell missed his entire rookie season after tearing his Achilles tendon in training camp and appeared in one game last season after spending time on the non-football illness list and missing time with a suspension.
Safety plan
Tracy Walker and DeShon Elliott should open the season as starting safeties, but Elliott’s lengthy injury history means the Lions won’t waste any time developing their young defensive backs for backup roles.
Rookie third-round pick Kerby Joseph is relatively raw at the position, having played some receiver in college, but Joseph’s ball skills (he tied for the NCAA lead in interceptions last season) could allow the Lions to roll him out in various packages early in the season.
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“I do think that’s ideal,” safeties coach Brian Duker said. “Everybody on our team, really the truth is you don’t need them till you need them, so as much as you can you want to get all those guys opportunities to play.”
Duker offered one for-instance with Joseph, saying the rookie could be a key third down defender in sub packages where the Lions flood the field with defensive backs. Similarly, Ifeatu Melifonwu — who was drafted as a cornerback but practiced at safety this spring before missing the end of workouts with an undisclosed injury — has the size and length to be a matchup defender against teams with top tight ends.
Whether one of those players could challenge Elliott for a starting job remains to be seen. Duker and Elliott spent three seasons together with the Baltimore Ravens and Duker was a driving force behind the Lions’ decision to sign Elliott as a free agent.
“You think back to the traits that Coach (Dan) Campbell talks about what he wants, grit is one of those things that comes right to the forefront,” Duker said. “This is a guy that loves football, he comes to work every day, he works really hard. I think in just the short time in practice we saw that. His effort getting to the ball, his communication, all those things, I would say that’s exactly what we thought we were getting and that’s exactly what he’s done so far.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.