DETROIT — Jared Goff pulls out his phone and looks for Amon-Ra St. Brown in his messages. He’s not hard to find. The two text often. During the offseason, they live 40 minutes from each other in Los Angeles and often meet for dinner at Sushi Bar Hermosa Beach, St. Brown’s favorite restaurant ever since Goff first took him there.
But Goff isn’t feeling like Omakase. He’s feeling like a workout. Goff hits send, asking St. Brown: Available?
Of course he is.
For the Lions Pro Bowl quarterback, St. Brown’s schedule is basically always wide open. And that’s how the All-Pro receiver is so often wide open in Detroit’s offense. Their connection is prolific. In the past four seasons, Goff has completed 457 passes to St. Brown for 3,952 yards and 39 touchdowns.
In NFL history, only three receivers have had four consecutive seasons of 100 receptions, 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns: Marvin Harrison Sr., Antonio Brown and Davante Adams.
“And he’s going to be the next one this year,” Goff told me of St. Brown.
That’s in no small part because they’ve worked out together the past four offseasons, often at least once a week. The workout itself “may seem mundane,” Goff told me. They run the same routes.
“You kind of do it with your eyes closed,” the quarterback told me. “It’s just the 10,000 rep rule. Whatever it is: 10,000 hours.”
That repetition has given life to something more than an unspoken connection.
It’s telepathy.
Amon-Ra St. Brown (14) and Jared Goff (16) have developed a special connection in their five years with the Detroit Lions. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
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When you watch Goff and St. Brown on the field, you can see they’re finishing each other’s sentences — if every sentence was punctuated with a first down. It’s not normal. They can make changes mid-play without even having to look at each other.
It goes beyond coaching.
“There’s things [they do] where I’m like, ‘Who’s said that? Who’s doing that?’ And it’s in the middle of the play, and they’re both on the same page,” said Scottie Montgomery, Detroit’s receivers coach and associate head coach.
The duo’s instinctive plays don’t necessarily follow the scheme’s rules; it’s about feel.
“He already knows what I’m going to do,” St. Brown told me about Goff. “Like a second into the play, he already knows what I’m doing. I know what I’m gonna do. It’s timing and rhythm. He’s not even thinking about what I’m going to do.”
Goff/St. Brown Connection
Touchdown Passes Year-by-Year (2021-25)
Their connection seems to be about absolute trust, brotherhood and, maybe, something stronger than words can express. They arrived in Detroit together in 2021. Goff, the No. 1 overall pick in 2016 by the Rams, came via a trade that he told me “for sure” put a chip on his shoulder. St. Brown arrived as a fourth-round pick from USC after leading the Pac-12 in receptions in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and he has closely followed the careers of the receivers who went above him.
They arrived in Detroit as the downtrodden. And it didn’t get better right away, with that 2021 season ending 3-13-1 in coach Dan Campbell’s first year with the Lions. But in the halls at Ford Field, in the meeting rooms at the Meijer Performance Center, at Sushi Bar and on a practice field in L.A., they’ve built themselves back up.
“It’s almost like you and your wife or you and your fiancée, your girlfriend,” St. Brown told me. “Like you want to be better for her, she wants to be better for you. It makes a good couple. … We don’t want to let each other down.”
*****
It’s crunch time for the Lions’ offense. There’s heat — like, it’s literally hot outside. But you can also feel the frustration and urgency. Practice is not going how they wanted it to go — at least not for the offense. Big plays keep getting called back. Drives keep faltering.
If you’re thinking this is a metaphor for Detroit’s 2025 season, then you’re onto something. Last year, the Lions thought they’d be hunting a Super Bowl, but they finished last in their division. It was a season of white-hot frustration.
When things get hard for the Lions, they go back to what’s most reliable: Goff and St. Brown. It’s a drive late during an August training camp practice, and the offense begins on the 25-yard line, just outside the red zone. Goff kicks things off with a 10-yard pass to St. Brown, because — why not?
Even on the practice field, Goff always has an eye out for his All-Pro receiver. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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Not long after that, they’re at the 3-yard line. And it’s fourth down. Goff hits St. Brown on a slant route. Touchdown. It’s an easy route — made even easier by those offseason workouts. Still, they’re not done. Up next: a 2-point conversion. At the line of scrimmage before the play, Goff hits Brown with a hand signal that is so subtle that the receiver nearly misses it.
“I wasn’t ready for it,” St. Brown said. “It was super last minute, and I barely saw it.”
But, of course, he doesn’t miss it. He’d never.
St. Brown beats his man to the corner of the end zone, where the ball is waiting for him, where only he can catch it. In less than a minute, they’ve posted eight points. The ball placement is perfect, because Goff knows exactly where St. Brown is going to be — long before he gets there.
“I think we’ve been playing for so long together that he understands my body language when I’m running routes,” St. Brown said. “That he can anticipate throws before I’m even out of the break. He kind of knows, ‘Oh, that’s how it looks when he’s about to break down.’ So he already knows. He can anticipate the throw.”
That’s how the receiver thinks the QB perceives him. Now listen to how the QB thinks the receiver perceives him.
“It’s about him feeling when the ball’s out of my hand and how quickly it’s on him,” Goff told me. “I would imagine subconsciously he’s understanding how quickly the ball is out.”
St. Brown has been a Pro Bowler in each of the past four seasons and has led the NFL in first-down receptions in two of them. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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It’s about the little details.
OK, I’ll admit that I hate that expression. It’s often the kind of thing that NFL coaches and players say when they don’t want to share those little details. It’s a cliché that obfuscates specificity. But Goff isn’t doing that here. Neither is St. Brown.
“When I threw him that fade in the back of the end zone [for the 2-pointer], I know he’s going to want it over the top — as opposed to slowing him up with the ball. That’s reps. That’s a million of them,” Goff told me. “I know what his body language is like when he’s like, ‘I’m digging and I want it there [in the corner of the end zone].’ Because I can’t see what the defender is doing out there, really. I can see it from my vantage point, but I don’t really know how far away he is. So … I’m trusting [St. Brown] that he knows this ball needs to go there.”
I wasn’t able to get video of this play, because the Lions’ practices are no phones allowed. But that’s not a problem, because, like Goff said, they’ve done this a million times. And when I asked St. Brown for a route that best exemplifies the strength of his connection with Goff, he brought up a play that’s quite similar — an inside fade in a 2023 playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That play’s success came down to a check at the line of scrimmage. In the red zone, St. Brown knows that Goff has different signals — and free rein to make changes at the line. So inside the 20-yard line, St. Brown knows to be especially attentive, whether it’s practice or a playoff game. In this touchdown against Tampa, Goff did something that let St. Brown know: This pass is coming to you.
“It’s very subtle. You don’t want the defense to really see it,” St. Brown told me. “It makes it easy when you talk about things before it happens, and it shows up in practice or in the game. And you’re already a step ahead.”
The Lions would win that game 31-23. It’s their most recent playoff victory, which is perhaps why it’s so sharp in their minds.
“That was sick. To me, that one’s easy though,” Goff told me. “That one was like there was no one else on the field but me, him and the corner. And like I’m throwing it to you no matter what. I trust your route. I trust what you’re gonna do. I’m gonna throw it where only you can catch it and go make a play. And I think he loves that challenge.”
We talk endlessly about how football is an 11-on-11 game. There are 22 players on the field. But Goff and St. Brown take pride in seeking opportunities to make it a three-person game.
QB and WR vs. DB.
“Yeah, two on one,” Goff said. “It’s fun. When he’s man-to-man, he’s winning at least probably 75 percent of the time.”
At the line of scrimmage, Goff will give St. Brown subtle signals that only the two of them understand. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
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But if that kind of play is “easy” (which it’s not, by the way), then what does Goff think shows their connection most clearly?
He said to scrub backward in the game film against Tampa to look at a third-and-15 play, where St. Brown ran a deep hitch. Nothing fancy: The receiver runs out to the end of the field and stops. When he turns, the ball should be on him.
But then Goff brought up another third-and-15 play, one against the Arizona Cardinals. It was a connection on a deep in-cutting route.
In both instances, Goff releases the ball so that it’s on his receiver at precisely the right time. In both instances, the Lions had no business picking up a first down. In both instances, the defense must have known Goff wanted St. Brown. In neither instance could the defense do anything about it.
“These in-cuts are often the ones that become the anticipatory throws,” Goff told me. “Because he can’t get all the way in there. He’ll run into somebody, so I have to anticipate. He has to give me the right body lean, and so all these in-cuts that you could watch on tape — you could watch 100 of them — I bet I throw him early, and I bet he’s giving me a good indicator.”
It’s an indicator that only a trained eye can see. St. Brown has trained Goff well. And vice versa.
“That creates this level of trust on throws that you wouldn’t normally throw, that you’re trusting are not going to end up in a bad play,” Goff said.
These are the routes that are so often impossible to defend. The best defensive play call, the best defensive back, the best intentions — none of it can stop a quarterback and a receiver when they’re speaking without talking.
“All we need is like a slither of space for him to throw it. All he needs is a little room to throw it. All [I] need is a little room to catch it,” St. Brown told me. “That kind of demoralizes defenses.”
*****
Back when it all began again in Detroit in 2021, Goff was begging the coaches to put St. Brown on the field. Sure, the rookie wideout was only a fourth-rounder. But it was immediately apparent to the QB that he was the team’s best receiver.
“In training camp, I was like, ‘Why is he not starting? Get him on the field.’ I knew right away this kid’s gonna be really good,” Goff told me. “I don’t think anyone knew that he’d become what he is. But I think that chip on his shoulder and the chip on my shoulder, both of us kind of wanting to prove ourselves and being on a team that wasn’t very good and having to lean on each other, has helped build us into a great partnership now.”
Chicago Bears receiver Kalif Raymond, who spent the past five years with Detroit, said it was “only Jared and the janitor” in the building when he arrived in the morning and left at night. And when St. Brown was drafted, he brought his 202 routine with him. It started in middle school when his father heard about another receiver who caught 200 passes on the Jugs machine after every practice. So Amon-Ra would catch 202.
As a Lions rookie, he’d do his 202 in addition to staying late to catch passes from Goff.
“I’m cramping. I’m gassed. I got nothing. And him and Jared are running practice routes after practice, and then that’s either before or after Saint has got his 202,” Raymond told me.
For all that Goff and St. Brown have accomplished since then, they still have a chip on their shoulder, still feel as if they are overlooked. And in true form, they stick up for each other.
“I feel like [Goff] never gets the respect that he really deserves,” St. Brown told me. “Maybe it’s the way he plays because he can’t run. Whatever it may be. There’s always gonna be people that say, ‘There’s guys better than Jared. Jared’s not so-and-so.’ They’re always gonna have something to say.
“And I feel like I’m the same way. I’m not the flashiest receiver. I’m not running go balls and Moss-ing dudes. My game is not like that.”
But the way Goff talks about St. Brown, it’s almost like he’s Randy Moss.
There was Goff’s promise about this upcoming season — and how St. Brown’s production would put him alongside Harrison, Brown and Adams. But there’s also the way Goff talks about St. Brown with the coaches — away from the cameras and press conferences. Goff famously texted then-Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson before the 2023 season.
“I had texted Ben at some point, like, ‘Yo, like this dude’s gonna be a problem this year,’” Goff laughed. “He was so hungry, and you could just feel it. But … I could send any of the coaches that same text right now. I feel the same thing from him now. It just keeps getting better and bigger.”
So what could be bigger or better? Right now, honestly, they look a lot like Tom Brady and Julian Edelman — elite pocket quarterback and elite slot receiver.
But when I suggested that comparison to both Lions, they talked about what Brady and Edelman had — and what Goff and St. Brown do not.
“For me and Jared, we got to win the Super Bowl. … It’ll just help — I can say it — our legacy,” St. Brown told me. “We haven’t, frankly, won any really big games here. Yes, we’ve won a lot of games, but we haven’t won the big ones. So I think for us, and I think Jared’s on the same page, we want to win the big games.”
Those are the hard games.
But we know what happens when things get hard for the Lions.
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