Amon-Ra St. Brown Shares Impact of New Wide Receivers Coach

Lions wide receivers are competing, executing well during training camp.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown practices during training camp at team's Performance Center | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In the Detroit Lions' receivers room, there is one name that prominently stands out: Amon-Ra St. Brown. The former fourth-round pick has been a star for the Lions since he entered the league, and, as such, he has become one of the faces of the franchise.

The Lions All-Pro receiver is not expecting any hiccups once the season starts, and his confidence is high heading into his fifth season.

Part of the reason Detroit's wideouts have shined at camp has been the influence of Scottie Montgomery, the team's new position coach.

That is not to say that the Lions have had a flawless start to training camp offensively. There have been multiple series where the defense has come out on top, and some of that has been self-inflicted.

The USC product is not concerned, with this being part of the learning curve of a new offense. He has no doubts about the offense’s ability or their own end goal, despite the change from Ben Johnson to John Morton at coordinator.

“I think it’s a learning curve. Day five of camp, day two of pads, and a lot of us didn’t or weren’t practicing during OTAs,” St. Brown pointed out. “To get everyone back together, practicing now, it’s gonna be a learning curve, but I think we are executing, doing just fine right now. There’s hiccups, obviously, but there is flashes of us executing at a high level. There’s flashes of us making mistakes. It’s a combination of both. But, I think if we are all on the same page, as we move forward, to reach that same goal, we’ll be just fine.”

St. Brown was quick to call this offense advanced. He acknowledged he is not well-travelled in learning new playbooks, but the ‘new’ offense is a 50/50 split of new concepts and calls with the old offense from last season.

“I think it’s pretty advanced. This is my second offense. It’s a mixture of Ben (Johnson)’s offense and Johnny-Mo (John Morton). I haven’t experienced too many offenses in this league,” St. Brown reflected, “but our offense is pretty detailed.”

Morton is not the only coach new to St. Brown, as Scottie Montgomery flipped from coaching the running backs to the receivers this offseason. The receiver has complete confidence and faith in his new coach, and reflected that this fresh perspective aids the receivers in run-blocking.

“I love him as a receiver coach. Not only because he knows us, he’s been here the last two years, but because he’s coached receivers. He’s done it,” St. Brown remarked. “He’s coached the backs, he’s coached so many different things that when we’re doing the run game now, he’s teaching us what the running backs are doing, what are the cuts they want to make. What the running backs like in how we block the DBs, the safeties, whatever they may be.”

That said, St. Brown was quick to point out that Montgomery is not negating the receiving element of the pass game, either.

“In the pass game, his details, his tips on how to get open for us, I feel like it’s great, he knows a lot about getting open as a receiver," St. Brown expressed. "He played the position. We love Scottie, he is super detailed, he’s smart. He understands his players, and he loves us.”

There are also a few new faces on the team for the receiver to work with, notably first-year pros Isaac TeSlaa and Dominic Lovett.

“They’re doing good,” St. Brown said about the two rookies. “We’re excited, as vets, to see young guys come in. Offense isn’t the easiest, we got lots of moving parts, but they’re doing a great job of getting the whole offense, getting an idea of the offense, going out there, making plays.”

He also praised the veterans of the team for helping with the adjustment period for the rookies.

“As vets, we are trying to help them wherever we can, and then when they get out there, they kinda know what plans they are gonna be in,” St. Brown stated. “The hardest part is when it’s a period where you don’t know what is going to be called. The whole play-call sheet, the whole playbook is going to be open, those are the hardest times. The rookies are doing great. I mean, I give them a lot of credit. The whole offense isn’t easy, and they are picking it up pretty fast.”

Additionally, St. Brown is excited for the many different looks the Lions' offense will show opposing defenses, including lining up running back Jahmyr Gibbs out wide and featuring two-back sets.

“It’s gonna be awesome,” the standout pass-catcher said. “We can do so many things with the offense. I think the coaches understand, realize that. (They are) trying to find different ways to get different guys involved. We’re just experimenting right now, lot of that stuff will be in the game.”