Detroit Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown could be in line for even more production

One of the players who should see more targets this week now that tight end T.J. Hockenson is in Minnesota is slot receiver Amon-Ra. St. Brown.

It only takes looking back to the end of last season to come to that conclusion.

Hockenson missed the final five games last year with a thumb injury, which coincided with St. Brown’s offensive explosion at the end of last season.

In those last five games the Lions were without Hockenson, St. Brown was targeted 55 times and caught 41 of those for 474 yards and four touchdowns.

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson did a nice job last season putting St. Brown and others in position to make plays when they didn’t have Hockenson. That experience is something the Lions can lean on for the remaining 10 games of this season.

“Coach Johnson, all our coaches, do a great job of putting us in positions to make plays,” St. Brown said this week. “Whether that’s formation adjustments, whatever it is, they are going to put us in a position to make plays.”

This is an opportunity for Johnson to tinker with some formations and receiver sets. He can play to some strengths of Detroit’s other pass-catching weapons, especially St. Brown, who has 35 receptions for 344 yards and three touchdowns in six games.

“Definitely losing (Hockenson) is going to hurt us a bit, but that just means targets go elsewhere,” St. Brown said. “I think for all of us, we’ve got to step up and make more plays. If we think what we did up to this point was enough, we have to do more.”