The 2018 NFL season was filled with disappointments for the Green Bay Packers; however, some players still shined through the darkness. One of these players is rookie receiver Equanimeous St. Brown. St. Brown’s rookie season was not great, but when he was on the field, he showed flashes of brilliance.
Equanimeous St. Brown a Promising Rookie Wide Receiver for Green Bay Packers
Equanimeous Tristan Imhotep J. St. Brown has by far the most memorable name in all of professional sports. Bar none. Fortunately for the Pack, his level of play has the potential to be as unforgettable as his name. The rookie showed a lot of flashes during his short-changed rookie campaign. Former head coach Mike McCarthy’s original plan was to sit the rookie wide receivers out for the entire season; however, as injuries depleted the receiving corps, the team had to turn to the rookies.
St. Brown made his NFL debut in the week five divisional battle at the Detroit Lions. Despite the loss, St. Brown caught three of five passes attempted his way for 89 yards. He caught most of the passes Aaron Rodgers threw in his direction in the subsequent weeks. He had two other solid performances the rest of the way. The first one was the loss on the road to the Minnesota Vikings where he caught three of five for 53 yards. In his last game at the New York Jets, he caught all five passes thrown his way for 94 yards.
Threat More Than Weapon
His career as of now seems to mirror his pre-draft profile where Lance Zierlein wrote, “At this stage, St. Brown is more of a threat than a weapon.”
A knock on him coming out of Notre Dame was that he sometimes played passively and looked like he did not want to compete. His rookie campaign mirrors that in some regards. He had games where he looked phenomenal while in others he looked absent and disengaged.
Upon analyzing his collegiate numbers, this critic is right on the money. At the University of Notre Dame, St. Brown had great games and games where he was completely absent. His career-highs all came in one game against Syracuse University. Touchdowns in a game, longest reception, all-purpose yards, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns in a game all happened in the game against Syracuse.
He had another great game against the University of Southern California where he set his career-high in reception and did a lot of damage on special teams with a blocked kick and a punt return.
He had games where he was completely absent like in the road game at Boston College, where he finished with one reception for three yards, or at North Carolina where he had one reception for nine yards.
In games at the New England Patriots, he caught one of four passes for four yards. Two weeks later, at the Seattle Seahawks, had the same stats line only this time for 16 yards. In the home loss to the Arizona Cardinals, he was shutout. These were close games that went down the wire, where an extra play or two could have changed the outcomes of the game.
St. Brown was unable to find the end zone during his rookie campaign. This is not the end of the world as other players who went on to have great careers had okay numbers as rookies. For example, Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon did not score a touchdown his rookie season, and he turned out pretty good.
Conclusion
St. Brown has all the physical talents to become an elite receiver in the NFL, now he just needs to be more consistent play-to-play, game-to-game. With consistency will come more opportunities and with Aaron Rodgers at the helm, look out.
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