Lions OC John Morton worked with Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Tim Brown but said Amon-Ra St. Brown is the most complete WR he's ever coached
John Morton has coached some of the best wide receivers in NFL history, Hall of Famers like Jerry Rice and Tim Brown.
He said Amon-Ra St. Brown is the most complete of them all.
“I told St. Brown the other day, 'you’re the best I’ve ever been around, run and pass, the way you prepare, the professionalism,'” Morton said. “What he does in the offseason. And I’ve said this before, he reminds me of Anquan Boldin. They just come to work. All they want to do is dominate every single play.”
St. Brown has 27 catches for 307 yards and a league-leading six touchdowns through four games and has been the catalyst of the NFL’s best offense in the Detroit Lions’ 3-1 start.
He has four or more catches in 15 straight games dating back to last October and ranks second in the league among receivers in expected points added/receiving (plus-29.1) behind only Puka Nacua.
“I told him, I said 'I don’t really care what the coverage is, you’re going to get open,'” Morton said. “And Jared (Goff) has that comfort level with him. I mean, when you got that, it’s kind of easy to call plays. But I just think, just his attitude and how he approaches his preparation, I haven’t seen that from a wideout like that. That’s pretty impressive.”
Morton, a former wide receiver at Western Michigan who’s spent most of the past three decades coaching in the NFL, played briefly with Tim Brown during his playing career and was an offensive assistant with the then-Oakland Raiders during Brown’s final six seasons with the team.
He worked with Rice, considered the greatest receiver of all time, in Oakland in 2001-04, and was a senior offensive assistant with the Raiders in 2002 when they reached the Super Bowl.
Morton acknowledged he coached Rice towards the end of his career, but didn’t back down from his praise of St. Brown.
“I’m talking about run and pass, everything,” he said. “I mean, Jerry would block every once in a while but I don’t think Bill Walsh wanted him to block too much. He had other guys for that.”
St. Brown said Morton made similar comments to him on the field during pregame workouts before the Lions’ season opener against the Green Bay Packers.
“And in my head I'm like, ‘Didn’t you coach Jerry Rice? There’s no way I'm the best,’” he said. “But like I said, it means a lot, it means the world, but I got to keep proving it, man. Just cause he says it now. doesn't mean much if I can't keep doing it.”
The Lions play the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday in a game that will feature two of the league’s best pass catchers, St. Brown and Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase.
Chase led the league in catches (127), receiving yards (1,708) and receiving touchdowns (17) last season and has similar numbers to St. Brown (26 catches, 264 yards, 1 TD) this year.
St. Brown said he’s a big fan of Chase, his draft classmate in 2021, and fellow Bengals receiver Tee Higgins.
“I think they're one of the best duos in the league, so whenever they're on, if it’s a primetime game or a game that I have a chance to watch, I love to watch them play,” he said. “I love to watch all receivers that I feel like are pretty good just to watch them play, see what they do.”
That includes Rice and Brown, who Morton has shown clips of to the Lions’ wide receiver room.
St. Brown said he considers Rice the best receiver ever, not just for the numbers he put up – he holds NFL records for receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns – but for the way he did on film and the longevity he had in his career “routing dudes” at 40 years old.
"(John has) seen a lot of ball, so to have him say that, it means a lot, just because of the amount of football that he's coached, the amount of guys he's been around," St. Brown said. "For me, it's nice to hear things like that, but I got to keep doing it every day, keep proving it each and every week. I feel like I have guys around me on this team that push me, coaches that push me, so I'm just grateful to be in this position."
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions OC: Amon-Ra St. Brown a more complete WR than Jerry Rice
Category: Football
