Today we are examining Amon-Ra St. Brown, the 6’1″ 194 lb. slot receiver from USC who was voted first-team All-Pac-12 in 2020.
Strengths: St. Brown is a great technician who displays really crisp route-running. He possesses the footwork, quickness, and wiggle to beat press coverage off the line of scrimmage. Coming in and out of his breaks, St. Brown is tight and sudden to create separation. St. Brown has surprisingly good contested catch ability and a much larger catch radius than you would expect given his size, as he shows an ability to leap, extend, and high-point the football with admirable body control and adjustment. He can even secure some of these catches through contact, and shows tremendous sideline awareness. St. Brown is very good after the catch, showing wiggle, shiftiness, quickness, and physicality to pick up extra yards. He is a very tough player, as he is not afraid of working the middle of the field and catching through contact. St. Brown is a very good blocker due to unmatched effort in this domain.
Weaknesses: St. Brown offers no outside value and will be confined to the slot in the NFL, as his size and speed numbers will leave much to be desired. This also means he is not much of a big play producer. Although he is very good on the short and intermediate levels, he rarely makes a play deep. While St. Brown is a tough and physical player, his lack of play strength does still show sometimes, as he can struggle against strong, physical defensive backs, getting knocked off his route at times, particularly when he is not expecting the contact. His slight frame does beg the question of whether or not he will be durable in the NFL. Adding some mass and muscle could be to his advantage.
Bottom Line: St. Brown profiles as a very good number two receiver in the NFL, operating from the slot with the potential of becoming a reliable security blanket for a quarterback. His route-running, quickness, toughness, and catch radius make him a very dangerous player on short and intermediate routes. His lack of size and speed prevent him from working on the outside and running vertical routes, but he excels at what he does and will certainly become a high-end slot receiver in the NFL if his frame can hold up and if he adds some muscle and play strength.
Kosta’s grade: 2.4 (indicating a mid second round grade)
Draft Projection: Round 2
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