Every Franchise's Greatest Receiver

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Steelers is a tough one to pick. But I think old1r1sh got it right... Longevity of great production will always rank higher. And nobody did it better than Hines. Much better than a flash in the pan like Wallace, Holmes, Burress or Thigpen. 217 games & just north of 12k yards... Nobody on the list comes close, yet. Stallworth is the closest, but AB is steamrolling his charge to the top.

Here's some stats for comparison

1. Hines Ward
games: 217
receptions: 1000
yards: 12,083
TDs: 85

2. John Stallworth
games: 165
receptions: 537
yards: 8,723
TDs: 63

3. Antonio Brown
games: 86
receptions: 526
yards: 7,093
TDs: 38

4. Heath Miller
games: 168
receptions: 592
yards: 6,569
TDs: 45

5. Louis Lipps
games: 108
receptions: 358
yards: 6,018
TDs: 39

6. Lynn Swann
games: 116
receptions: 336
yards: 5,462
TDs: 51

 

[Battlelyon]

Rams are tough to decide

1. Isaac Bruce - 1024 receptions 15,208 receiving yards 91 TDs 4 pro bowls, Super Bowl winning catch
2. Torry Holt - 920 receptions 13,382 receiving yards 74 TDs 7 pro bowls
5. Henry Ellard - 814 receptions 13,777 receiving yards 65 TDs 3 pro bowls
4. Harold Jackson - 579 receptions 10,372 receiving yards 76 TDs 5 pro bowls
6. Ricky Proehl - 669 receptions 8,878 receiving yards 54 TDs
3. Elroy Hirsch - 387 receptions 7,029 receiving yards 60 TDs 3 pro bowls HOF
7. Jack Snow - 340 receptions 6,012 receiving yards 45 TDs 1 pro bowl
8. Red Phillips - 401 receptions 6.044 receiving yards 34 TDs 3 pro bowls

Total: 5,134 receptions 80,702 receiving yards 499 TDs 26 pro bowls
Average: 642 receptions 10,088 receiving yards 62 TDs 3.25 pro bowls

 

[Kevin12773]

Steelers is a tough one to pick. But I think old1r1sh got it right... Longevity of great production will always rank higher. And nobody did it better than Hines. Much better than a flash in the pan like Wallace, Holmes, Burress or Thigpen. 217 games & just north of 12k yards... Nobody on the list comes close, yet. Stallworth is the closest, but AB is steamrolling his charge to the top.

Here's some stats for comparison

1. Hines Ward
games: 217
receptions: 1000
yards: 12,083
TDs: 85

2. John Stallworth
games: 165
receptions: 537
yards: 8,723
TDs: 63

3. Antonio Brown
games: 86
receptions: 526
yards: 7,093
TDs: 38

4. Heath Miller
games: 168
receptions: 592
yards: 6,569
TDs: 45

5. Louis Lipps
games: 108
receptions: 358
yards: 6,018
TDs: 39

6. Lynn Swann
games: 116
receptions: 336
yards: 5,462
TDs: 51

It would be nice to see the numbers stallworth and swann would've put up in today's pass first NFL

 

[Clayton]

Rams are tough to decide

1. Isaac Bruce - 1024 receptions 15,208 receiving yards 91 TDs 4 pro bowls, Super Bowl winning catch
2. Torry Holt - 920 receptions 13,382 receiving yards 74 TDs 7 pro bowls

2 big reasons why I think its Bruce.

1. His career was longer
2. Bruce's prime had him lose targets to Holt, Faulk and others. Holt's prime was him and a bunch of washed out players so Holts yards per catch was down because he was the focal point but his usage was waay up.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

1312 targets for 731 receptions. 55.71% catch rate.
1135 target for 670 reception. 59.03% catch rate.

So there is about a 3.3% gap in their catch rate where Moore is more reliable. 13.7 yards a catch for Moore while Megatron has 15.9 yards a catch with more usage and more scores per game.

I still don't really see it.

Rodney Peete, Erik Kramer, Scott Mitchell, Charlie Batch.

Matthew Stafford.

Herman's delivery system was shit on a stick in comparison.

 

[ducky]

Yards aren't everything the Lions were a running team at the time and passed far less than they did during Calvins career and Herman was sharing targets with 2 other great receivers Brett Perriman and Johnnie Morton. Both Herman and Calvin were 4 time first team all pros.

Lol You are too young to remember those days aren't you?

The Lions were sick offense to try and defend back in those days. Teams geared up to stop Barry but the Lions ran a wide open offense with a sick amount of weapons. Moore was obviously good but he need Johnny Morton and/or Brett Perriman on the field to keep things open for him.

When Barry and Moore and that offense was in their prime, they rant he ball less than almost all teams in the league. They were a pass 1st offense with a RB that still drew all the attention.

If Calvin Johnson had seen the type of single coverage that Moore saw because of the talent that played around him, he could have got close to breaking some of Rice's records even with retiring early.

When teams came to face Calvin, their focus was COMPLETELY on trying to stop him. When teams came to face those mid-90's Lions team, they played a completely balanced coverage against those teams and actually geared up more to stop the run because of how Barry could change the entire game in a single run.

Just go look at those years. Moore almost always lead the team in receiving....but Morton and Perriman were always right there with him. In the year Moore put up 1600+, Perriman put up 1400+. In the years he was putting up 1200+, Morton was putting up 1000+ almost everyone of those years. They were a completely balanced offense so Moore got to see coverages that Calvin could only dream of.

I'll never understand the hatred and the bias that some Lions fans have towards Calvin.

 

[megalodon30]

For Broncos I'm going Dicky Lyons Jr. Don't think he ever made the active roster, but cool name though.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

NO doubt.... Steve Largent for the Seahawks.... He was undersized but had the heart of a lion... caught pretty much dam near everything thrown his way....

 

[Clayton]

Lol You are too young to remember those days aren't you?

The Lions were sick offense to try and defend back in those days. Teams geared up to stop Barry but the Lions ran a wide open offense with a sick amount of weapons. Moore was obviously good but he need Johnny Morton and/or Brett Perriman on the field to keep things open for him.

When Barry and Moore and that offense was in their prime, they rant he ball less than almost all teams in the league. They were a pass 1st offense with a RB that still drew all the attention.

If Calvin Johnson had seen the type of single coverage that Moore saw because of the talent that played around him, he could have got close to breaking some of Rice's records even with retiring early.

When teams came to face Calvin, their focus was COMPLETELY on trying to stop him. When teams came to face those mid-90's Lions team, they played a completely balanced coverage against those teams and actually geared up more to stop the run because of how Barry could change the entire game in a single run.

Just go look at those years. Moore almost always lead the team in receiving....but Morton and Perriman were always right there with him. In the year Moore put up 1600+, Perriman put up 1400+. In the years he was putting up 1200+, Morton was putting up 1000+ almost everyone of those years. They were a completely balanced offense so Moore got to see coverages that Calvin could only dream of.

I'll never understand the hatred and the bias that some Lions fans have towards Calvin.

Its not too different than the Bruce vs Holt argument except that Bruce had more seasons to separate himself from Holt.

Being on a good team has a lot of pros and cons. In terms of respect, though, Calvin and Herman had equal number of all pros but Calvin routinely put in the better seasons. I just know that NFL Networks top 100 players routinely had Megatron in a spot on their list that Barry would've occupied back in the day and not Herman.

 

[ducky]

And @old1r1sh gets 20 lashes for listing CC above Randy for the Vikes.

CC was a great WR.....but Randy towered over him.

No WR in the history of the game was so frequently double or triple covered as Randy and he still put up mega stats despite that.

...and since I just talked about it: The only WR to see the type of coverages like Randy saw was Calvin Johnson. These guys made life on their QB's immensely easier because you could tell pre-snap what was going to happen because no one in the league would hardly ever single cover them.

 

[packfancjh]

How? Driver will not even make NFL HOF where Hutson and Lofton currently reside. Hutson redefined position and even Jerry Rice stated he is one of the greatest WRs all time... Lofton was 4 time All Pro, 7 time Pro Bowler and named to 1980s all decade team.

Driver is better.. why, because he played in the age where they pass the ball more and it favors WRs?

all I said was one could make the argument for it not that Driver was the or my choice. Driver is the all time Packers leader in receiving yards and receptions so he should be in the conversation. Like I said, Hutson helped revolutionize the wr position and dominated his competition so of course he should be in the conversation as well and is my choice.

 

[broncosmitty]

I would put Donald Driver over Hutson.

Oh yeah?

 

[Rockinkuwait]

Just go look at those years. Moore almost always lead the team in receiving....but Morton and Perriman were always right there with him. In the year Moore put up 1600+, Perriman put up 1400+. In the years he was putting up 1200+, Morton was putting up 1000+ almost everyone of those years. They were a completely balanced offense so Moore got to see coverages that Calvin could only dream of.

I'll never understand the hatred and the bias that some Lions fans have towards Calvin.

It's kind of a double sided argument "he had no help" meaning he got the toughest coverage (though Moore saw piles of double coverage), but also was the top option to throw to so much more vs. "he had other good wideouts around him" where he maybe didn't see as tough of coverage and lost a lot of targets to other wideouts.

As for Driver vs. Hutson... It's Hutson, he's the only WR you could argue with Jerry Rice as the best all time. He was the guy who basically made the passing offense a weapon teams could use consistently, created the routes WR's still use today.

When he retired he had about 8000 yards and 99 TD's... 1 WR at that time has more than 2000 yards receiving. By the time of SB1, 20 years after he retired, his receiving yardage record had barely been broken.. His rec TD mark stood for 45 years and took 16 game seasons and lots of changes to pick up the passing game to break by 1.. He's still top 10 in receiving TD's, and of the guys above him, all played in 16 game seasons, which allowed them a lot more games to catch what he did in 10-11 game seasons. He still has piles of records, was a 2 time league MVP, 3 time NFL champion, the first Packer player in the HOF, and easily a top 2 WR ever in the league.

 

[Battlelyon]

Rams are tough to decide

1. Isaac Bruce - 1024 receptions 15,208 receiving yards 91 TDs 4 pro bowls, Super Bowl winning catch
2. Torry Holt - 920 receptions 13,382 receiving yards 74 TDs 7 pro bowls
5. Henry Ellard - 814 receptions 13,777 receiving yards 65 TDs 3 pro bowls
4. Harold Jackson - 579 receptions 10,372 receiving yards 76 TDs 5 pro bowls
6. Ricky Proehl - 669 receptions 8,878 receiving yards 54 TDs
3. Elroy Hirsch - 387 receptions 7,029 receiving yards 60 TDs 3 pro bowls HOF
7. Jack Snow - 340 receptions 6,012 receiving yards 45 TDs 1 pro bowl
8. Red Phillips - 401 receptions 6.044 receiving yards 34 TDs 3 pro bowls

Total: 5,134 receptions 80,702 receiving yards 499 TDs 26 pro bowls
Average: 642 receptions 10,088 receiving yards 62 TDs 3.25 pro bowls

I wonder if any other team that had four 10,000+ yard receivers.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

I wonder if any other team that had four 10,000+ yard receivers.

Well Harold Jackson only had a few thousand actually with the Rams, Ellard was under 10k in his Ram Career so I am sure you could find a lot that would fit that.

Moss, Rice, Tim Brown, and Lofton for the Raiders for example off the top of my head.

Or Rice, Moss, Bruce, and TO makes the top 4 in all time receiving yards in the league... all played for SF

 

[Battlelyon]

Well Harold Jackson only had a few thousand actually with the Rams, Ellard was under 10k in his Ram Career so I am sure you could find a lot that would fit that.

Moss, Rice, Tim Brown, and Lofton for the Raiders for example off the top of my head.

Or Rice, Moss, Bruce, and TO makes the top 4 in all time receiving yards in the league... all played for SF

Jackson played more for the Rams than any other team.

Those guys didn't play for any other team more than they did with the Rams. So Lofton is out so is, Moss.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

all I said was one could make the argument for it not that Driver was the or my choice. Driver is the all time Packers leader in receiving yards and receptions so he should be in the conversation. Like I said, Hutson helped revolutionize the wr position and dominated his competition so of course he should be in the conversation as well and is my choice.

But that is only because they passed the ball more and got 6 more games a season. I get that Brian Sipe has more passing yards than Otto Graham, but he isn't anywhere near the best Cleveland QB because of that. It doesn't get him in the conversation even.

 

[TP76]

Jackson played more for the Rams than any other team.

Those guys didn't play for any other team more than they did with the Rams. So Lofton is out so is, Moss.

Loved the Stanley Morgan/Harold Jackson tandem in NE - those two could really light it up, when Grogan was "on".

 

[Battlelyon]

Loved the Stanley Morgan/Harold Jackson tandem in NE - those two could really light it up, when Grogan was "on".

Yeah, they were a good duo, in 1979 both had a 1,000 yards receiving.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

Jackson played more for the Rams than any other team.

Those guys didn't play for any other team more than they did with the Rams. So Lofton is out so is, Moss.

I saw Ricky Proehl on that list who played more games for the Cards than the Rams, so didn't know that was the cutoff... my bad

Jackson spent the majority of his career as a player other than a Ram.. Really his career was 1/3 with the Rams, the Eagles and the Pats. He's actually 12th all time on the Rams receiving records.



As most rec yards for a franchise, I bet the other three would be pretty close with Harrison, Wayne and Berry. Throw in Lenny Moore for Indy and Jackson for the Rams, and I bet the colts 4 had more receiving yards as Colts than the Rams 4 as Rams, probably close with Hirsh.

Actual majority of their career with one team, I guess Monk, Clark, and Santana Moss would be your best group for over 10k yards for all three with Washington alone. Not sure any other team has more than 2 receivers to gain 10k with that franchise.



It just seems a weird statement, lumping in a guy who did most of that elsewhere like saying Tampa has two guys who were 10k receivers for them in Joey Galloway and Keyshawn, just because they spent more time there then elsewhere in a lot of moves even though combined they didn't get 10k yards in Tampa.