With pick No. 112 in the 2021 NFL draft, the Detroit Lions selected USC wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who had earned All-Pac-12 honors twice during his three seasons with the Trojans from 2018-20.
At that time, the Lions didn’t know they were bringing in one of the best receivers in the NFL, but that’s what he’s turned out to be.
In St. Brown’s four seasons in the league, he’s caught 430 passes for 4,851 yards and 33 touchdowns on his way to three Pro Bowls and two All-Pro selections. He’s also helped Detroit have some of their best years since the merger, including two NFC North titles the last two years.
Throughout his tenure with the Lions, St. Brown has been vocal about using the wide receivers taken ahead of him in the draft as motivation to be the best player he can. St. Brown was the 17th wideout taken in the 2021 selection meeting, and he’s made sure to remember each of them by name.
St. Brown was even trying to use those 16 wide receivers as motivation in choosing his jersey number in Detroit. However, his girlfriend, Brooklyn Adams, apparently miscounted, leading to St. Brown wearing No. 14 for the last four years.
“He’ll never admit this, but he asked me to count the amount of receivers before him, and that was going to be his number, and I messed up,” Adams disclosed in Netflix’s “Quarterback” docuseries. “It’s not 14, and I told him it was 14, and so that’s why he’s 14.”
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Lions quarterback Jared Goff is currently wearing No. 16 and has been in Detroit since the Los Angeles Rams traded him there in March 2021. While players change numbers all the time in the NFL, it probably would’ve cost St. Brown quite a bit to get No. 16 from Goff, who’s worn the number since high school. Considering Goff was a former first-overall pick, and St. Brown was entering the league as a fourth-round selection, that probably wasn’t happening.
No. 14 has been good for St. Brown through four years, so it’s all worked out.
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