Prospect for the Pack: USC WR Amon-Ra St. Brown

Amon-Ra St. Brown, the younger brother of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, is a potential early-round draft target who could address Green Bay’s long-standing need for a natural slot receiver.

Let’s take a look at the former Trojans’ draft resume and potential fit with the Packers:

As a junior in 2020, the youngest St. Brown brother put together a productive season, compiling 41 catches for 478 yards, 11.7 yards per reception and seven touchdowns in six games. With a full 13-game season in 2019, he racked up 1,042 yards, 13.5 yards per reception and six touchdowns on 77 receptions. In terms of career production, he provides a nice three-year sample size. On film, there’s plenty to like about the USC wideout, too.

First and foremost, St. Brown is a crafty route runner who understands how to set up breaks with subtle moves in his releases and route stems. He shows good high-point ability, strong hands and toughness to secure catches in traffic. He’s good at finding soft spots in zone coverage and he’ll work back to his quarterback on broken plays when needed. Against off coverage, he’ll work to a cornerback’s blind spot before breaking back inside or outside to create separation.

Against tight man coverage, he has enough quickness and nuance to create decent separation. Despite not having the greatest size or speed, he actually won down the field a fair amount in college. That specific part of his game may or may not translate to the pros, but if it does, it’s icing on the cake. After the catch, St. Brown is pretty average. He can break some arm tackles here and there, but he’s not especially elusive or fast. He’s not going to break many pursuit angles.

In 2020, St. Brown played a higher percentage of snaps as an outside receiver – likely to fill the void left by former USC teammate and current Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. In the slot, St. Brown appears to be more comfortable, but I think he can probably give you limited snaps on the outside. His lack of size and length definitely shows up at times when he has to deal with press/physical coverage, but that concern can be mitigated by limiting his snaps on the perimeter.

St. Brown performed well at the USC Pro Day in the agility drills (6.90s 3-cone and 4.26s short shuttle), jumps (38.5″ vertical, 10’7″ broad jump) and bench press (20 reps), but ran a pedestrian 4.59s 40-yard dash at 5-11 and 197 pounds. It’s not hard to envision general manager Brian Gutekunst and head coach Matt LaFleur liking the USC wide receiver’s skill set, but I’m guessing they’d prefer more speed from the slot for a player that’s going to be sharing the field with fellow 4.5 wide receivers in Davante Adams and Allen Lazard.

If teams pigeonhole St. Brown as a slot receiver and knock him down the board for below-average speed at his size, he could conceivably slip to the end of the third round. His ceiling might be the late second round. Ultimately, I think he will be picked somewhere in the third-round range. The fit certainly makes sense from a positional need standpoint and the value could be right if he falls further than expected.

The question is: would the Packers take St. Brown or pass on him for a faster wideout?

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