Amon-Ra St. Brown is one of the Detroit Lions’ captains for this season once again, and for good reason. He was not only the team’s leading receiver in an explosive offense led by Jared Goff, but he has become a huge voice for the team and a big piece of their gritty identity.
The oft-reliable and even keeled fifth year star is looking to lead the Lions to another postseason berth where, this time, they’re able to get through the Divisional Round and NFC Championship Game to reach the Super Bowl. That’s the ultimate goal of any squad of the Lions’ caliber and talent.
St. Brown knows this all too well, and understands that the pressure is somewhat on for Detroit this season in a tightly contested NFC North and NFC, generally. However, as St. Brown noted to reporters ahead of Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers, the Lions aren’t going to be completely cooked if they can’t get it done this year.
“This year, we’re like, it’s almost ‘all or nothing’ even though in reality, our nucleus will probably still be here next year and we’ll probably have a pretty good team next year,” St. Brown told a scrum of reporters about the teams’ expectations in 2025, per a video shared by ESPN reporter Eric Woodyard.
St. Brown states the obvious about great position for Lions
St. Brown knows that the team has a lot of work to do in order for the nucleus that he’s referring to to remain in the fold. Extensions for Aidan Hutchinson, Brian Branch, Jameson Williams, and others are in order ahead of the 2026 season, while free agents like Alex Anzalone are hitting the market once the 2025 season is wrapped up.
So, if the team isn’t able to get something done this year, there’s a possibility they lose a ton of the core they’ve worked hard to keep in the fold with their buy in by next season. However, the Lions have two things on their side as it pertains to these future negotiations: a winning culture, and an undeniable team chemistry.
Both factors are likely to contribute to the extensions of players like Hutchinson and Williams getting done, considering that both players were drafted by the team and invested in despite injury woes or other career setbacks. The winning is just a result of that investment from the team and its players, and the culture being sustained by head coach Dan Campbell.
So, yes, a Super Bowl should be the goal for this core in 2025. Worst case scenario, though, is that the Lions just run it back again with the same talented roster they have now, next year.
