ESPN’s annual poll of league executives, coaches and scouts moved Amon-Ra St. Brown up to No. 5 among NFL wide receivers for 2026, his highest placement yet in the survey. The Detroit Lions receiver ranked eighth a year ago and sixth the year before, and Jeremy Fowler’s results, published Wednesday, included at least one voter who placed him as high as second.
Voters kept describing the same set of traits, and speed was rarely the first one mentioned. “Savvy, knack for getting open, plays faster than his timed speed,” an NFL coordinator told ESPN. “He’s putting continuous stress on you even when you know he’s not going vertical. Strong as hell, can separate at the point and is shifty, plays as if he’s being disrespected at all times.”
That profile showed up most clearly on a short week last December. On Thursday night in Week 14, St. Brown played through a high ankle sprain on three days of rest and still produced 92 yards. His 582 yards after the catch ranked third among all receivers on the season, the kind of total that comes from finishing runs rather than avoiding contact.
The production has also become historically durable. St. Brown is the only player in the NFL with at least 1,000 receiving yards and 10 touchdown catches in each of the past three seasons, and the only receiver in Lions history to string together a run like it. Only Calvin Johnson, with four such seasons, owns more in franchise history.
The part that fits Detroit’s identity best is the work without the ball. One veteran coach told ESPN that St. Brown lets the offense operate as if it has two tight ends on the field when it has one, because he blocks well enough to prop up the running game from a receiver spot. For an offense built on physicality up front, that is the receiver they would have designed.
St. Brown was not the only Lions wideout to draw votes. Teammate Jameson Williams earned an honorable mention for the field-stretching speed that plays off St. Brown’s underneath work. Detroit opens training camp with rookies reporting July 25 and veterans July 28, and the Lions will lean on that receiver room as they retool the offensive line in front of it.
