Green Bay Packers: It’s Now or Never for Equanimeous St. Brown

As a former sixth-round pick out of Notre Dame in 2018, we saw flashes from Equanimeous St. Brown that season that led us to believe that the Green Bay Packers may have found a Day 3 steal in the draft. St. Brown would appear in 11 games, which included seven starts, and was targeted 34 times during that span, catching 62 percent of those passes for 328 yards at 15.6 yards per catch, according to PFF ($$).

This included an 89-yard performance during his debut against Detroit in Week 5. A 53 yard game against Minnesota in Week 12, and what is still a career-best 94 yards in Week 16 against the New York Jets.

In fact, St. Brown’s 15.6 yards per catch average was the 15th most in football that season and best on this Green Bay Packers team.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see St. Brown take that step forward in Year 2. An ankle injury that occurred during the preseason would send him to IR for the entire year. It goes without saying, but the importance of in-game reps and practice time early on for any player is vital in their development, and it’s hard to imagine that missing an entire season didn’t stunt St. Brown’s growth to some degree.

Although St. Brown and quarterback Aaron Rodgers had only been on the field together for a total of 11 games, the Notre Dame receiver had caught the attention of QB1, and Rodgers was excited to have him “back in the mix” entering the 2020 season.

"“I’m excited about getting EQ back from injury and seeing how he feels,” Rodgers said via Packers Wire. “He really made some great strides his rookie year, especially towards the end of the season, making plays for us and growing each week. He has a great approach to the game. It will be fun to see him healthy.”"

St. Brown would appear in 14 games, including the playoffs but had no starts this time around. And after being targeted 34 times as a rookie over 11 games, he would be targeted only 16 times this past season. St. Brown caught nine of them along with a touchdown but was also credited with a few drops–one of which came on a two-point conversion attempt in the NFC Championship Game.

Now looking ahead to the 2021 season, it would appear that St. Brown is in a much different position than what he was in a year ago as he is now on the hot seat. If the Green Bay Packers keep five receivers on the initial 53-man roster just as they did in 2020, then there is really only one spot up for grabs, with Davante  Adams, Allen Lazard, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Amari Rodgers accounting for four of them.

The best-case scenario for St. Brown and the other receivers is that the Packers keep six, and there are two spots available. But even then, he is far from a roster lock. From a pure talent standpoint, Devin Funchess has far more talent than St. Brown and can likely offer more to this offense. The big question for Funchess, however, is whether or not he can shake off the rust and adjust to a new offense after not playing for almost two years.

With only 62 career special teams snaps, St. Brown hasn’t exactly been a big contributor in that regard either. For reference, Malik Taylor, who will also be fighting for a roster spot, took 210 special teams snaps in 2020 alone. For a back-end of the roster player who likely won’t see much playing time on offense, special teams’ contributions are almost a must.

We can also add Juwann Winfree to the wide receiver mix after he had an impressive performance during mini-camp–which yes, I know, it’s only mini-camp, but he’s certainly someone worth keeping our eyes on, and it’s not like we heard St. Brown’s name all that much, if at all.

The good news for St. Brown is that at least at one time, he had Rodgers on his side, although perhaps that has changed after last season. Ultimately, it’s going to come down to how he performs this summer during training camp and the preseason, but if he continues on his current trajectory, then St. Brown is very much a cut candidate, which would provide the Green Bay Packers with $850,000 in cap relief, according to Over the Cap–something they still very much need.