The Jerry Rice vs. Randy Moss debate is the NFL’s version of Jordan vs. LeBron. Both sides of the argument have their go-to points, but ultimately ambassadors of each athlete usually have their mind made up before the conversation even begins.
I’m not interested in answering that timeless question today. Still, the idea of what truly makes someone the best continues to be fascinating, particularly when we’re forced to go back in time and evaluate a different era of play.
Today we’ll break down the NFL’s best WRs since the Moss era began. This will be a subjective list, although I’ll base the rankings around the following factors:
- Who had the highest combined rank in total receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns.
- Who absolutely balled out in the playoffs when it mattered most.
- Who was the overall most-memorable WR from that season.
Tiebreakers will usually be decided by touchdowns; points win football games. Sorry not sorry. Additionally, each year will have an honorable mention list that includes non-king players that led the league in receptions, yards or touchdowns. Special thanks to Pro Football Reference for all data.
1998: Randy Moss
Rookie year Moss was a helluva drug. His 14 receptions of at least 40 yards remains the highest mark from any WR over the past 30 years. Overall, Moss averaged a career-high 19 yards per reception and had more than a few massive performances:
- Week 1: 4 receptions-95 yards-2 TD in NFL debut
- Week 5: 5-190-2 in first game vs. Packers
- Week 12: 8-153-1 in second game vs. Packers
- Week 13: 3-163-3 on Thanksgiving vs. Cowboys
- Week 14: 8-106-3 vs. Bears
- Playoffs: 4-73-1 and 6-75-1
The man was generally unstoppable all season.
Randy Moss would be the No. 1 wide receiver selected in a theoretical football draft that let teams select the prime version of any player to ever play the gamepic.twitter.com/wpAzFmcpOm
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) May 8, 2019
Moss finished his ridiculous NFL debut with 69 receptions for 1,313 yards and a league-high 17 touchdowns. This is far from his only crown on this list.
Honorable mention: Antonio Freeman, O.J. McDuffie
1999: Marvin Harrison
Harrison failed to clear even 900 yards and/or 75 receptions during the first three seasons of his career. All he did after was (literally) put on the most-ridiculous stretch that the WR position has ever seen.
Overall, Harrison set an NFL record by tallying eight consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards and 10-plus receiving scores:
- 1999: 115 receptions-1,663 yards-12 TDs
- 2000: 102-1,413-14
- 2001: 109-1,524-15
- 2002: 143-1,722-11
- 2003: 94-1,272-10
- 2004: 86-1,113-15
- 2005: 82-1,146-12
- 2006: 95-1,366-12
1999 (103.9 receiving yards per game) and 2002 (107.6) were Harrison’s top-two seasons on a per-game basis.
Honorable mention: Cris Carter, Jimmy Smith
2000: Randy Moss
Moss led the league in receiving scores in 1998 (17), 2000 (15), 2003 (17), 2007 (23) and 2009 (13).
Honorable mention: Marvin Harrison, Torry Holt
2001-2002: Marvin Harrison
The Colts were still a few years away from being legit contenders at this point, but Harrison and Peyton Manning were already the league’s top WR-QB combo.
Honorable mention: Rod Smith, David Boston, Terrell Owens,
2003: Randy Moss
2003 was the only season in Moss’ career that he averaged at least 100 receiving yards per game.
Honorable mention: Torry Holt
2004: Terrell Owens
T.O. spent the first eight seasons of his career with the 49ers before joining forces with Donovan McNabb and company. What followed was arguably the most-impressive year-long stretch of Owens’ career, as he racked up 14 scores and a 13-1 record before unfortunately breaking his leg in Week 15.
However, even this wouldn’t keep Owens sidelined. The physical freak returned from the injury fewer than two months later in Super Bowl XXXIX. Of course, T.O. was hardly to blame for the Eagles’ loss to the Patriots, as he caught 9-of-14 targets for 122-scoreless yards.
Was T.O. a diva that divided multiple locker rooms during his career? Absolutely. Just remember he was also one of the better talents that the WR position has ever seen, and his heart shouldn’t ever be questioned after this courageous 2004 campaign.
Honorable mention: Muhsin Muhammad, Derrick Mason
2005: Steve Smith
Smith joins 1990 Jerry Rice and 1992 Sterling Sharpe as the WR position’s only triple-crown winners over the past 50 years. His 103 receptions, 1,563 yards and 12 receiving scores in 2005 were all career-high marks.
Even more impressive was Smith’s playoff run. The man posted electrifying 10-84-1 and 12-218-2 receiving lines in the first two rounds against the Giants and Bears, respectively, before ultimately fading out with a 5-33-0 performance in the Panthers’ NFC Championship loss to the Seahawks. Still, even the latter performance wasn’t exactly a bust, as Smith took a punt 59 yards to the house during the loss.
Smith spent his entire career proving doubters wrong and deserves to see his name in Canton one day. This 2005 season was definitively his Mona Lisa.
Honorable mention: N/A
2006: Marvin Harrison
This was Harrison’s last full season of his career. He posted a rather pedestrian 15-193-0 combined receiving line in four playoff games, but left with a Super Bowl ring after yet another ridiculous regular season performance.
Honorable mention: Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, Andre Johnson
2007: Randy Moss
All Moss did in his first season with Tom Brady and company was rack up 23 touchdowns in 16 games. It’s arguably the second most-dominant season from the WR position in NFL history in terms of scores, trailing only 1987 Jerry Rice (22 touchdowns in just 12 games).
Honorable mention: Reggie Wayne, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Wes Welker
2008: Larry Fitzgerald
Larry Legend gained a career-high 1,431 yards in 2008, averaging a career-high 9.3 yards per target along the way.
Of course, it was Fitzgerald’s performance in the 2008 postseason that was truly legendary. Somehow, Fitz caught 30-of-42 targets for 546 yards and seven (!!!) scores in four combined playoff games against the Falcons, Panthers, Eagles and Steelers.
Larry Fitzgerald 2008 playoffs:
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) January 15, 2020
vs. Atlanta: 6-101-1
vs. Carolina: 8-166-1
vs. Philadelphia: 9-152-3
vs. Pittsburgh: 7-127-2pic.twitter.com/iLMGP7okOl
Fitzgerald has been great for the better part of the last decade and half, but he was never more dominant than in January and February of 2009.
Honorable mention: Andre Johnson
2009: Andre Johnson
Johnson joins Antonio Brown, Marvin Harrison, Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones as the only players to ever gain at least 1,500 receiving yards in consecutive seasons. He accomplished this during the 2008-2009 seasons, with the latter campaign producing a career-high 98.1 receiving yards per game.
The 14-year veteran never scored double-digit touchdowns in a single season, but few WRs have been more consistent and efficient than Johnson over the past 20 years.
Honorable mention: Randy Moss, Wes Welker
2010-2012: Calvin Johnson
Megatron never exactly experienced a downturn during his nine-year career. Still, this three-year stretch featured some of the very best moments that Johnson had to offer.
- 2010: 77 receptions-1,120 yards-12 TDs
- 2011: 96-1,681-16
- 2012: 122-1,964-5
I’d imagine the majority of you reading this would vote yes to the idea that the 34-year-old WR could still score eight-plus touchdowns in 2020.
Calvin Johnson could score 8+ TDs next season if he felt like itpic.twitter.com/Nb2rCDs8jI
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) March 30, 2020
I wouldn’t argue with anyone that Johnson’s kingship could’ve even been pushed a year further into 2013, when he famously posted a 14-329-1 line in *one* game against the Cowboys.
Honorable mention: Roddy White, Brandon Lloyd, Dwayne Bowe, Wes Welker, James Jones
2013-2015: Antonio Brown
No WR caught more touchdowns than AB (75) from 2010-2019. The first three seasons of his career were fairly tame, but nobody matched Brown’s consistent production from 2013-2018:
- 2013: 110 receptions-1,499 yards-8 TD
- 2014: 129-1,698-13
- 2015: 136-1,834-10
- 2016: 106-1,284-12
- 2017: 101-1,533-9
- 2018: 104-1,297-15
It wouldn’t be egregious to call AB the king of the WR position during this entire stretch. Mr. Big Chest and Ben Roethlisberger are undoubtedly the most-prolific WR-QB combination of the last decade.
Honorable mention: Josh Gordon, Demaryius Thomas, Pierre Garcon, Dez Bryant, Julio Jones, Allen Robinson, Brandon Marshall
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2016: Julio Jones
Julio remains in the midst of one of the most-productive stretches in NFL history, as his 1,394 yards in 2019 marked the first time he finished under 1,400 since he was limited to just five games in 2013.
Jones set career-high marks in yards (1,871) in 2015 and touchdowns (10) in 2012. Yet, 2016 remains his most-dominant season in terms of efficiency, as he averaged a career-high 10.9 yards per target in 14 games of action. He’s one of just 12 players to average at least 10.9 yards per target with triple-digit targets in a season since the statistic began being tracked in 1992.
Adding to Jones’ massive season was some pristine production in the playoffs. None of the Seahawks (6-67-1), Packers (9-180-2) nor Patriots (4-87-0) had any success slowing him down. One of the biggest sins from the Falcons’ Super Bowl collapse was undoubtedly only throwing the ball to Julio *four* times.
Honorable mention: Jordy Nelson, T.Y. Hilton, Larry Fitzgerald
2017-2018: DeAndre Hopkins
The artist known as Nuk proved capable of producing with pretty much anyone under center for the Texans in 2017. Next he set career-high marks in receptions (115) and yards (1,572) in his first full season with Deshaun Watson in 2018.
Hopkins’ ability to both create separation and come down with the ball in contested-catch situations remains unrivaled in today’s NFL.
I think about this route roughly 3 times per daypic.twitter.com/qL7IDXwnDt
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) March 27, 2020
A Brock Osweiler-infused 2016 season is the only thing holding back Hopkins from having one helluva streak of production. His 104-1,165-7 line in 2019 was a step back by his standards, but Kyler Murray and company certainly seem capable of once again elevating Nuk to elite heights (as long as they can fix that offensive line).
Honorable mention: Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, Jarvis Landry
2019: Michael Thomas
Thomas caught an NFL-record 149 passes in 2019, leading the league with 1,725 receiving yards along the way.
Easily the most-impressive part of Thomas’ game is the efficiency with which he and Drew Brees operate: his 78.1% catch rate is easily the highest mark among any WR with at least 100 targets since the stat began being tracked in 1992.
Opposing defenses know that Thomas and Brees largely function in the underneath areas of the field, but it simply hasn’t mattered. Thomas is too good as both a route technician as well as a contested-catch artist to be stopped. There’s a reason why his Twitter handle is "@Cantguardmike.”
Honorable mention: Kenny Golladay
