For years, NFL offenses ran through running backs and quarterbacks, managing the clock and the game. Offenses ran through players like Eric Dickerson, Emmitt Smith, and Barry Sanders. They were the stars that everyone wanted on their teams. They were the jerseys people wanted and the football cards worth collecting.
Today, that's not the case. For every Saquon Barkley, there are 10 game-changing wide receivers in the NFL. When looking at the highest-paid players in the NFL next season, five of the top 25 salaries are wide receivers, and Ja'Marr Chase is still waiting for his contract. Davante Adams is set to make more than Joe Burrow, showing the value placed on the position over the years. There are 18 wide receivers on the list before getting to the first running back (Christian McCaffrey).
With wide receiver gaining more and more importance in the game, it's an interesting exercise to rank them. Who were the very best wide receivers of the 21st century? We start with one we expect to rise up this list as his career continues.
25. Ja'Marr Chase, 2021-Present
Ja’Marr Chase has only been in the league for four seasons, but he dominated in all of them. He looks like he’s only going to get better. At just 24 years old, Chase just put his very best season together in 2024, winning the triple crown by leading the league in receptions (127), yards (1,708), and touchdowns (17). Chase was a legitimate MVP candidate, doing everything he could to lift the Bengals to the playoffs (whilst unsuccessfully).
Chase is an incredible talent, joining his college teammate Joe Burrow in the pros. Their chemistry is palpable, and it’s a big reason why both were so successful to start their careers. We expect them to keep putting up numbers, but even looking at simply what he’s done so far, Chase deserves to be on the list.
He has 5,425 yards in four seasons. He’s never had a season with fewer than 1,000 yards even though he has a season where he played just 12 games. Next year, Chase should pass Lee Evans, Dallas Clark, and Jeremy Shockey in career yards. Again, he’s going to turn 25 next year.
Chase barely squeaks out CeeDee Lamb for the “young guy” on this list. Both have been incredible to start their careers, but they have a lot longer to go. Chase might be at the top of this list when it’s all said and done.
24. Derrick Mason, 2000-2011
Derrick Mason was a perfectly adequate wide receiver during his tenure. Unlike many of the other names on this list, he took some time to put together his best seasons. He failed to pass 350 yards receiving in the first three seasons of his career. Then, when the calendar went to 2000 and Y2K didn’t swallow the world whole, Mason turned into a superstar.
He broke the record at the time for most all-purpose yards in a season. He had 2,690 in 2000, beating Lionel James’ 15-year record. That has since been beaten by Darren Sproles, but to this day, Mason is second in that statistic. It earned him his first and only All-Pro win and one of his two Pro Bowl appearances.
The fact that Mason only made two Pro Bowls in his career comes with a substantive theme. He was criminally underrated the entire time he was in the league. He had 1,000 yards in eight out of nine seasons from 2001 to 2009. However, he only broke 1,200 yards once in his career. He stayed in this box. He was a good number-one receiver, but he was never a superstar.
To this day, Mason still holds the Ravens record for career receiving yards. If Mark Andrews gets traded this offseason, he will hold that record for even longer. He was a perfectly acceptable receiver well into his 30s, which is not anything to scoff at.
23. Cooper Kupp, 2017-Present
One might be surprised when looking at Cooper Kupp’s career stats to see his “prime” is actually not that long. He didn’t join the NFL until he was 24 years old, and he has more seasons with fewer than 750 yards than he has seasons with more than 1,000 yards. However, he has one of the greatest wide receiver seasons we’ve ever seen, and it accumulated with a Super Bowl Championship.
There are only a few players at any position that had a season as great as Cooper Kupp’s 2021 season. He finished the year with 145 receptions, 1,947 yards, and 16 touchdowns. All of those were league leaders, which gave Kupp one of the few triple crowns in NFL history. It is second to Calvin Johnson in single-season yards.
What makes this even more impressive was his ability to keep the party going in the playoffs. He added another 33 catches for 478 yards and six touchdowns in the playoffs, also all league leaders. He was responsible for 19 first downs in the postseason. In the Super Bowl, Kupp had 92 yards and two touchdowns. When Odell Beckham went down with his knee injury early in the game, the Bengals should have known the Rams were going early and often to Kupp. They still allowed him to score two touchdowns. In fact, he scored a touchdown in every single playoff game that season.
Since that year, Kupp has been battling various injuries, and now the Rams are reportedly trying to trade him. He says he wants to keep his career going, so he can work his way up the list eventually, but he might be a one-hit wonder who had this one incredible season, and it was so good, he’ll stay in the record books for a long time.
22. Brandon Marshall, 2006-2018
Brandon Marshall played in so many places and, tell me if you’ve heard this about wide receivers before, had some issues in the locker rooms he played in, but he was always performing. He had 1,000 yards in seven-straight seasons from his sophomore year until his eighth year in the league. He did this for the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, and Miami Dolphins.
Then, he was able to put together his best statistical season for the New York Jets at 31 years old. In 2015, Marshall brought in 109 balls for 1,502 yards and a league-leading 14 touchdowns. He fell off a cliff after that superstar season, but the theme remained the same for most of his career. If a team needed a player who would go on the field, catch most of the balls thrown his way no matter how good the quarterback, and get the ball into the endzone with consistency.
While Marshall was incredibly consistent, he hasn’t been able to have too many of those amazing seasons that make receivers legends. He only made first-team All-Pro just once in his career. It was his first year with the Bears, a season where he had a lot of positive headlines.
Outside of that one season, he had six Pro Bowl appearances, which is fine. However, the statline should have warranted more than just some Pro Bowls. His impact was limited, but he was still really good.
21. Stefon Diggs, 2015-Present
Stefon Diggs is a receiver who is incredibly clutch. There are multiple instances where his team needed a seemingly impossible play, and Diggs delivered. Whether for the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, or this past season with the Houston Texans, Diggs was the go-to option in a pinch. There was no more clutch moment in his career than the Minneapolis Miracle. With Case Keenum at quarterback, the Vikings were looking at the end of their season in the face. Then, with 10 seconds left in regulation and no timeouts on 3rd and 10, Keenum launched the ball 27 yards down the field to an open Diggs. However, New Orleans Saints safety Marcus Williams had him dead to rights. Except, a very timely spin move got him out of that tackle, and Diggs scored the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
While that was Diggs biggest play, it was hardly all he’s known for. Some would be surprise to learn that Diggs never made the Pro Bowl in Minnesota, but he immediately went up a notch after he was traded to Buffalo. He made the Pro Bowl in each of his four seasons there, and his 1,500-yard season to start his career there earned him his first and as of this writing only All-Pro.
Diggs is looking to keep his career going, and he could sign with a major contender or pair up with a superstar QB this offseason. He’s one of the top wide receiver free agents, especially with Tee Higgins likely getting franchise tagged by the Bengals. It could increase his output, and he could move further up this list as time goes on.
20. Justin Jefferson, 2020-Present
Justin Jefferson is the one player on this list that’s most likely to move up. He’s shown more in his first five seasons than many receivers have in their careers. No player has had even close to the impact on the field that Jefferson has had this early in their career. Jefferson has 7,400 yards receiving, which easily beats Torry Holt for most yards by more than 600. He has 700 more yards than Randy Moss in those seasons and 1,000 more than Jerry Rice.
Jefferson is quickly putting together a Hall of Fame career. He’s done this on the Minnesota Vikings. They don’t exactly have Patrick Mahomes lining up under center. He’s a big reason why Sam Darnold’s career was resurrected and how he’s going to make $30+ million per season moving forward.
With Darnold’s contract being for just one season, Jefferson is likely going to build a new relationship with a quarterback this season. Whether that’s J.J. McCarthy or someone else, nobody should be concerned. Jefferson showed in 2023 that he’s QB proof. He missed seven games, had to deal with a revolving door of quarterbacks including Joshua Dobbs and Jaren Hall, and he still broke 1,000 yards and scored five touchdowns.
Jefferson also won Offensive Player of the Year in 2022. He’s one of four wide receivers in history to win the award, joining Cooper Kupp, Michael Thomas, and Jerry Rice. If he gets another one, he’ll join Rice as the only receiver with two. With him being the top player at his position and playing with less-than-stellar QBs, he has a good chance to win another one.
19. Chad Johnson, 2001-2011
Chad Johnson was just a wild wide receiver who was always in the headlines, but his headlines were almost always uneventful compared to other receivers. Whether it was changing his name to “Ochocinco,” “The List” that evaluated the cornerbacks who tried covering him on a weekly basis, or a laundry list of touchdown celebrations that made the SportsCenter highlights. While that was the headline, we didn’t talk as much about his actual impact.
Johnson led the AFC in receiving for four-straight season, and he was a first-team All-Pro in 2005 and 2006. His accolades are top notch, even though he didn’t get all of the accolades he may have deserved because of the distractions he brought on himself, but this is a chance to give him his flowers.
He finished his career with north of 11,000 yards, 766 receptions, and 67 touchdowns. The incredible consistency from Johnson was palpable, as he still flourished even when Carson Palmer got hurt. Johnson’s antics seemed to help him on the field, as it did somewhat get into the heads of the defense.
Johnson was as skilled as any player in the league. When he was dominating the stat line, he was doing it despite Marvin Harrison, Randy Moss, Reggie Wayne, and other stars playing in his conference. He helped turn the Bengals from a laughing stock to a legit playoff contender. Before Johnson arrived, the Bengals missed the playoffs for 10-straight seasons. With Johnson, he at least got them to a winning franchise more often than they were before..
18. Hines Ward, 2000-2011
Hines Ward is actually a really hard wide receiver to rank. He had traditional wide receiver stats, like when he broke 1,000 yards from 2001 to 2004, making the Pro Bowl in each of those seasons. He was also a three-time second-team All-Pro. However, the Pittsburgh Steelers were asking a lot more of Ward than regular receivers. He was expected to be a tight end in his blocking ability.
Ward was the best blocking receiver in the league most years, and the Steelers really put that to good use. He was able to help this team win two Super Bowls, including in 2005 when he was named Super Bowl MVP. He had five catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. He also added an 18-yard run, continuing to show that he was a jack of all trades.
He’s one of eight wide receivers to win MVP of the biggest game in sports. He joins a short list of great Steelers wide receivers to win the award. Besides Ward, Santonio Holmes and Lynn Swann also won the award.
Ward is a playoff performer more than he was a compiler in the regular season. He elevated his game when it mattered. He wasn’t someone who cared as much about a matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 12 as he did fight when his season is on the line. Ward will continue to be a star in the Steel City, even if his contributions don’t lead to a spot in Canton.
17. Odell Beckham Jr., 2014-Present
One might think Odell Beckham Jr. had better overall stats in his career, but he’s a player who had this insane impact in a short window, but injuries derailed his overall impact. Only Randy Moss and Justin Jefferson had more receiving yards in their first three seasons. He dominated the league and caught balls that felt impossible. His catch against the Dallas Cowboys will be on highlight reels for all of eternity.
It’s unfortunate that injuries derailed Beckham. He continues to showcase a strong skill set, but it hasn’t turned into the overall impact most hoped. He was playing outside New York, so there was more scrutiny than most fanbases, and the injuries plus the attention appeared to weigh on Beckham.
After five seasons in New York, Beckham was dealt to the Cleveland Browns to play alongside his college teammate Jarvin Landry. However, it didn’t really work out. Beckham was there for a two and a half seasons before he was sent to the Los Angeles Rams. That’s where he had one last hurrah.
Beckham was essential for the Rams in the playoffs, helping them make it to the Super Bowl. He caught nine balls for 113 yards in the NFC Championship against the San Francisco 49ers. Then, in the Super Bowl against the Bengals, he had two catches and 52 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL that season, missed all of 2023, and he wasn’t much to go home about last year with the Dolphins. If this is it, Beckham had a distinct impact on NFL history, but his overall statistics will likely keep him out of the Hall.
16. DeAndre Hopkins, 2013-Present
Of all the physical freaks on this list, DeAndre Hopkins was the most physical and freakish of the bunch. He could do things no other player at any position could. His vertical leap was unmatched, and his hands were basically magnets. His catch percentage is usually over 65 percent, showing that if the ball was even remotely catchable, Hopkins was catching it.
Hopkins was first-team All-Pro at wide receiver for three seasons in a row. We’ve talked about the quarterbacks some of the players on this list were stuck with, but Hopkins might take the cake for making the most out of his situation. He started his career with the likes of Case Keenum, Ryan Mallet, Brian Hoyer, end-of-the-road Matt Schaub, T.J. Yates, Brock Osweiller, and Tom Savage. He finally got a decent quarterback in Deshaun Watson, but then he was traded for essentially peanuts.
With the Arizona Cardinals, he paired with Kyler Murray in what many thought would be a great connection. It worked very well that first season, as Hopkins put up 115 receptions for 1,407 yards. That season, he had a career-high 71.9 catch percentage. He made Murray’s life so easy.
Hopkins has been bouncing around the league, most recently playing in the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs. He is still incredibly efficient, even if he’s not a superstar anymore. Plenty of teams would be happy to have his skill set, even at this point in his career.
15. Anquan Boldin, 2003-2016
Anquan Boldin is considered one of the toughest wide receivers in history. He didn’t talk much, at least not through the media, but he would make a major impact on the field. We’ll never forget when he broke his face making a catch for the Arizona Cardinals. Eric Smith hit him in the head with his helmet, and Boldin was stretchered off the field. He was out “indefinitely,” which made many think most of his season was over. He worked hard and returned three weeks later.
That best tells the story of Boldin. He also wasted no time becoming a star. In his very first NFL game, Boldin had 10 receptions for 217 yards against the Detroit Lions in the 2003 season. He was incredibly productive in his first season and was named Offensive Rookie of the Year. It was a sign of things to come for Boldin.
Bolding didn’t have many superstar seasons. That’s mostly by design. For half of his career, he was playing alongside Larry Fitzgerald, so he didn’t need to compile statistics. He knew what his role was expected to be. He would later join the Baltimore Ravens and helped them win a Super Bowl, and he would be very productive for the San Francisco 49ers late in his career.
Boldin’s impacts stretch further than his on-the-field contributions. He is constantly returning to where he grew up in Florida and giving back to the community. He also gives back to the communities in which he played. He was honored with the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2015, a well-deserved honor.
14. Mike Evans, 2014-Present
We’ve talked about consistency a lot on this list, but there’s no one on the planet more consistent than Mike Evans. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver broke the record for most consecutive 1,000-yard seasons to start his career. Despite last season’s injury, Evans was still able to get over the millennium mark in 14 games. He also had 11 touchdowns, which was tied for fourth in the NFL. This came one year after Evans led the league with 13 receiving touchdowns.
Evans has always flied under the radar in his career. He’s constantly underrated, and despite that, he still pushes the Buccaneers as far as they can get every season. He’s a six-time Pro Bowler, but he’s never been a first-team All-Pro. Evans is already 24th all-time in receiving yards, ahead of Hall of Famers like Calvin Johnson, Michael Irvin, and Lance Allworth. He’s about 1,100 yards away from being in the top 15 all-time. If he gets 2,000 more yards in his career, he would pass Marvin Harrison for ninth all-time.
Evans does this no matter what’s in front of him. It doesn’t matter if he has a third-string quarterback throwing him the ball, if he’s dealing with major injuries, or if the offense has no running game. The Buccaneers know that Evans will be there when they need him most.
He was also crucial for their run to the Super Bowl during the 2020 season. It was Evans first-ever playoff appearance, and he was ready to break out. In four playoff games, he had 203 yards and two touchdowns. He had a big game against Washington in the Wild Card Round, which is the most competitive game the Bucs were in. Once again showing that Evans shows up when his team absolutely needs him.
13. Torry Holt, 2000-2009
Torry Holt’s Hall of Fame eligibility is one of the most puzzling situations the voters have faced. He was one of the best receivers of his era, and he had a few seasons where one could argue he was the best. He led the league in receiving two times, once in 2000 (1,635 yards) and once in 2007 (1,696 yards). He also led the league in receptions in 2003, his best season as a pro.
He broke 1,000 yards every year from 2000 to 2007. Jerry Rice is the only player in NFL history with more seasons of at least 1,100 yards than Holt. He finished his career with more than 13,000 yards receiving, good for 17th all-time. He wasn’t the man scoring touchdowns all the time, and that might be why he’s struggling with his Hall of Fame candidacy, but anyone who watched Holt or played with him will tell you how impactful he was every week.
Holt was an amazing mix of consistency and superstardom. He’d have these seasons where he dominated secondaries and beats the bricks off a cornerback. Then, he has other seasons when he is “death by a thousand cuts” and beats teams with little plays that become bigger and bigger as the game clock runs.
Holt deserves to be in the Hall, and he deserves this spot on the list. He’s one of the best at his position in the 2000s.
12. Reggie Wayne, 2001-2014
Reggie Wayne had big shoes to fill when he joined the league. The Indianapolis Colts drafted Wayne in the first round of the 2001 NFL Draft. At the time, many were wondering the thought process since the Colts already had Marvin Harrison, but it ended up being the perfect pick at the perfect time.
Wayne had a slow start to his career, but the patience the Colts were able to show made Wayne even more impactful when he was needed. He didn’t have his first 1,000-yard season until he was in his fourth year in the league. That would kick off seven-straight seasons breaking that threshold. He led the league in receiving in 2007 with north of 1,500 yards. Wayne was a good player who eventually turned great and hit superstardom when Harrison retired in 2008
For at least five seasons, Harrison and Wayne were the best wide receiver duo we’ve probably ever seen on a consistent basis. We’ve seen Hall-of-Famers come together in the past, but not with that much consistency. They both put their egos aside to make magic for the Colts.
In the Colts eventual Super Bowl win against the Chicago Bears, Wayne made his mark with a 53-yard touchdown in the first quarter. It was an important touchdown, as the Colts needed to respond to a Devin Hester kick return for touchdown. Wayne scoring showed the Colts didn’t need to worry about the rain.
11. Steve Smith, 2001-2016
Steve Smith was tough. He’s not the traditional wide receiver, which is why he fell to the third round of the 2001 NFL Draft. He stands at just 5-foot-9 and is under 200 lbs. This is not a traditional wide receiver. Honestly, that’s an understatement. In today’s game, there are no players of Smith’s stature who are playing well, let alone dominating like Smith did in his career.
It took Smith some time to really find his game. He did break 800 yards in his second season, which is good for a third-round pick, but it doesn’t scream “superstar.” Smith dominated in his third year, catching 88 balls for 1,100 yards and seven touchdowns. Smith was even better in the playoffs, taking down the favored St. Louis Rams with a 69-yard touchdown score in double overtime in the Divisional Round. Smith eventually played in the Super Bowl, where he had 80 yards and a touchdown against one of the best defenses of all time.
After missing his entire fourth season with a broken leg, Smith put together his best season in 2005, winning the triple crown with 105 receptions, more than 1,500 yards, and 12 touchdowns. It was his first time as a first-team All-Pro at receiver, as he won the award as a returner his rookie year.
Smith would continue to be productive for the rest of his career, although he had two strange down years in 2009 and 2010. Once he changed the way he played the game slightly, focusing more on his intelligence than his speed, he was back to a 1,000-yard receiver. He would move on to the Ravens, and had three productive years before calling it a career at 36 years old.
10. Davante Adams, 2014-Present
Davante Adams has been able to dominate the league with pure and utter physicality. He could find the ball at the catch point, leaping over defenders with ease. His career started with the Green Bay Packers, joining future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Rodgers in the middle of his prime. However, Adams took some time to get going. He didn’t break 1,000 yards receiving until his fifth season in the NFL, but he broke out in a huge way.
Adams was also using his pure physicality before being a true number one, scoring double-digit touchdowns in both his third and fourth seasons. He was a scoring machine, but it was 2018 when he truly hit his stride at this highest point. He had 1,386 yards and 13 touchdowns on 111 receptions.
Adams would go on to lead the league touchdowns twice, including 18 touchdowns in 2020. Only Jerry Rice and Randy Moss had more touchdowns in one season. Adams’ 103 touchdowns is already 10th all-time. He even has an outside chance to get into the top five on that list, passing Marvin Harrison.
It was important for Adams to have success away from Rodgers, which he did when he joined his college quarterback Derek Carr in Las Vegas. Adams is still consistently getting more than 1,000 yards per season and scoring touchdowns with ease. He could continue to climb up this list despite playing well into his 30s.
9. Andre Johnson, 2003-2016
Andre Johnson is a wide receiver who fell under the radar his entire career, but when he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024, most of the smartest analysts said it made all the sense in the world. And at this point, we agree. Sure, he was playing for the most recent NFL expansion team, which likely took away a lot of the attention other receivers on this list received.
Johnson broke 1,000 receptions, 14,000 yards, and finished his career with 70 touchdowns. He’s not exactly Randy Moss, but those numbers are still some of the best of the era. This was again an expansion team. Johnson joined the Texans in 2003, their second year of existence. They were not good, but he stuck around for 12 seasons when other options were obviously available to him.
What’s most impressive is who he did this with. Nineteen quarterbacks attempted a pass to Johnson in his career. Only four players attempted at least 100 passes to Johnson: Matt Schaub, David Carr, Sage Rosenfels, and a young Case Keenum. Carr actually threw 22 interceptions when targeting Johnson against just 13 touchdowns. Johnson did his best to make these passes work, but it wasn’t possible.
He caught passes from short-term veterans like Jake DelHomme and Ryan Fitzpatrick to youngsters who never amounted to anything like T.J. Yates, Ryan Mallett, and Dave Ragone. Johnson did his best with the talent around him, and he put together a Hall-of-Fame career because of making egg salad. He’s also one of three players, joining Calvin Johnson and Jerry Rice, who led the league in receiving in back-to-back seasons.
8. Terrell Owens, 2000-2010
Terrell Owens is as controversial a player without serious criminal allegations as there’s ever been in the NFL. There was the botched trade attempt by the Baltimore Ravens, the tackle on the star in Dallas, crying “that’s my quarterback,” whatever happened post-Super Bowl in Philadelphia, and he’s been accused of dividing locker rooms in most places he’s played. Yet, he continued to get chances because he was just that good.
Only Jerry Rice and Randy Moss had more touchdowns in their careers than Owens, and a large majority of them came in the 2000s. He led the league in touchdowns in 2001, 2002, and 2006. He had double-digit touchdowns in most of his seasons in that decade until he joined the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals late in his career. While he had his issues, when a team needed a score, few were even remotely as good as Owens.
Owens finished his career (despite him thinking he could still come back at 50 years old) with five first-team All-Pros. He was often the best receiver in the league, and while his off-the-field (and sometimes on-the-field) antics overtook his impact, the statline is what will live on. In 15 years, he had more than 1,000 receptions, close to 15,000 yards, and 153 touchdowns.
7. Julio Jones, 2011-2023
There are few players in the history of the league that could do what Julio Jones did on the football field. To have the combination of size, speed, and vertical ability seems nearly impossible. Just look at the catch he made in the Super Bowl. It takes literal perfection to time that jump, reach out at the most extreme catch point, hold onto the ball, and get his feet in bounds. And we will talk about no other moments in that game involving Julio Jones.
Real talk, Jones was an incredible specimen who found a way to turn it into a great football player. We have seen incredible athletes for decades in this league, but putting it together with the work ethic and impact like Jones did is a rare feat.
Jones finished his career with close to 14,000 receiving yards, good for 16th all time. His 2015 season will always be one of the best of all time. He has the third-most yards in a single season ever with 1,871, and that was when it was still 16 games in a season. He also led the league with 136 receptions, helping Matt Ryan get his first and only MVP award.
There may not be a wide receiver alive who had a better six-season stretch than Jones’ 2014-2019 stretch. He had no less than 1,300 yards in each season, and led the league in yards per game three different times. Jones when he was dominant was as dominant as anyone in the league.
6. Tyreek Hill, 2016-Present
Tyreek Hill is right on the cusp of the top five. He will very likely jump into that echelon in 2025. Hill has shown consistency with his speed alone to beat the bricks off defenders. He can catch a secondary off guard by faking a slant and just ripping past the cornerbacks and safeties. He is the best big-play receiver since Randy Moss. Hill has six different seasons with at least one 75+ yard touchdown.
Hill is a five-time first-team All-Pro, first getting there as a kick returner and taking the top spot among receivers in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023. He was a Pro Bowler in every year of his career outside of 2024. In 2023, he led the league in both yards (1,799) and touchdowns (13) despite playing on a Miami Dolphins team with an injury-prone quarterback.
This all started in Kansas City alongside Patrick Mahomes. It felt like this would be this era’s Peyton Manning-Marvin Harrison, two players who grow alongside each other on their way to Canton, Ohio. Instead, the Chiefs surprisingly traded Hill in his prime to Miami, and he hasn’t missed a beat. (To be fair, the Chiefs aren’t exactly regretting their decision after three straight Super Bowl appearances.)
When Hill is targeted in his career, his quarterback never had a rating below 95 for an entire season. It’s been well over 100 in all but one season. He’s a quarterback’s best friend. Teams can just throw the ball a mile and Hill will get under it. In 2023, the ball traveled more than 1,200 yards in the air of Hill’s 1,700 receiving yards. He makes the catch where the ball goes, and he beats defenders to it.
5. Antonio Brown, 2010-2021
Antonio Brown is a hard receiver to evaluate. He was incredible on the field. Nobody is denying that, but it’s impossible to separate his serious changes in behavior from his football impact. He has descended in issues which ended his career, and the last time anyone saw him play football is when in the middle of a game, he took off his pads and jersey, and did jumping jacks shirtless as he left to the locker room while the game was still happening.
With that said, we want to focus on the football impact. There are few players that put up the type of statistics Brown did during his time with Pittsburgh. He has two of the top 15 receiving yards season ever (2014 and 2015). Something about him made him impossible to cover. He was a mixture of Tyreek Hill and Marvin Harrison. He could catch a ball underneath and make it a 40-yard gain, or he could break the top off of a defense. Safeties had no idea how to cover him, cornerbacks couldn’t keep up with him, and he was often too elusive for linebackers. He could play outside and slot, giving Mike Tomlin the ultimate weapon.
From 2013 to 2018, Brown was as dominant as anyone at any position. During that time, he was a four-time first-team All-Pro, one second-team All-Pro, a six-time Pro Bowler, and three times he was in the top three for Offensive Player of the Year.
When looking at his career numbers, he’s not as high as he should be because of the nonsense that ended up pushing him into retirement. He’s 26th in career yards with just over 12,000, 25th in receptions, and 26th in touchdowns. If he could just keep himself out of trouble, he very likely gets into the top 10. There were no physical signs of slowing down. He just had to focus, but he couldn’t get it done.
4. Marvin Harrison, 2000-2008
Marvin Harrison came into the 2000s already establishing himself as one of the best wide receivers in the game. In 1999, Harrison led the league with 1,663 yards on 115 catches. He immediately established a connection with Peyton Manning, a connection that would go on to be the best in the history of the game. That would continue to drive the Indianapolis Colts to contention every single year of his career in the 2000s.
Harrison did not slow down after the turn of the millennium, putting up a league leading 102 receptions in 2000. He added 1,413 and 14 touchdowns that season. Harrison would break double-digit touchdowns eight seasons in a row, including leading the league with 12 in 2005. He finished his career with 128 touchdowns in the regular season. That is good for fifth of all time.
This player was insanely consistent, putting up superstar numbers into his age 34 season. That season also happened to be the one where he finally won a Super Bowl. He had 15 catches for 193 yards that season.
In the end, there are few receivers who did as much as Harrison in the century’s first decade. While he didn’t do it as loudly as Randy Moss or Terrell Owens, Harrison was just as dominant.
3. Larry Fitzgerald, 2004-2020
Speaking of “doing it quietly,” Larry Fitzgerald is known as one of the most underrated players of this era. He single-handedly carried the Arizona Cardinals into a new era. That’s rare for any player that’s not a quarterback, but for a wide receiver, a position that is reliant on quarterback, to do this is incredibly impressive.
Fitzgerald joined the Arizona Cardinals in 2004 after he was drafted out of the University of Pittsburgh. That season, the Cardinals would start Josh McCown, Shaun King, and John Navarre at QB. That would be a theme of Fitzgerald’s career. In five of his 17 seasons, he had at least three different starting quarterbacks throughout the season. Only three of his seasons did he have the same starting quarterback for all 16 games: Kurt Warner in 2008, Carson Palmer in 2013, and Kyler Murray in 2019.
Despite the craziness under center, Fitzgerald consistently dominated on the field. He had more than 100 receptions five times, and he broke 90 catches eight times.
He’s accumulated one of the best careers at the position. Fitz is second to Jerry Rice in receptions (1,432), receiving yards (17,492), and he’s sixth in receiving touchdowns. He’s expected to walk into the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in 2025.
2. Randy Moss, 2000-2012
Randy Moss is the most talented wide receiver in the history of football. We are confident that we can make that statement. Moss came into the league after dominating at Marshall University, and he hit his ceiling almost immediately. In his rookie season, he led the league with 17 touchdowns. He was a first-team All-Pro, a Pro Bowler, obviously the Offensive Rookie of the Year, and he finished third in MVP voting. Four people said he was the most valuable player in the NFL. That was in 1998, but he didn’t stop from there. Ironically, he had 155 yards on five catches on January 2, 2000, the first game of the new millennium.
Moss wouldn’t slow down from there. He broke 1,200 yards in each of his first six season, and he hit a career-high at the time with 1,632 in 2003. He did this with every single team putting all of their defensive assets on a mission to stop him directly. He was the game plan. “Stop Moss” wasn’t the goal of your gardner, it was what kept every defensive coordinator up at night in the early 2000s.
He was eventually traded to the Oakland Raiders, but we don’t want to talk about that. The New England Patriots saved him from that disaster, sending them a fourth-round pick in 2007 to pair him with the GOAT, Tom Brady. They immediately brought the league to its knees, breaking in tandem the quarterback touchdowns record and the wide receiver touchdowns record. Moss finished 2007 with 23 touchdowns receptions. That’s a record that still stands today.
In the playoffs, Moss almost won the Super Bowl for the Patriots after Brady sent a heave his way with time ticking down. It’s not discussed much, but he almost made the most insane and impactful catch in modern football history. We would have forgotten the Helmet Catch if he did, but he finished his career without the elusive Super Bowl title.
1. Calvin Johnson, 2007-2015
This may be a surprise to some, but there was no wide receiver as dominant as Calvin Johnson. Maybe the Lions' great and the current record holder for most receiving yards of all time in a single season is helped in his ranking by the fact that he retired when he was 30 years old, but there’s no argument against his dominance when he was on the field.
He had more than 5,000 yards from 2011 to 2013. To put that up in just three seasons is insane. Not only was he putting up insane yards for a Lions team that had been known for years as the laughingstock of the league, but he was getting into the end zone with consistency. Four times in his career, he broke 12 touchdowns in a season.
Johnson did all this while everyone and their mother knew the Lions were targeting him on most downs. There really wasn’t much else on those teams. The season he broke the record, Matthew Stafford targeted Johnson 204 times. Teams would start a play with two players focusing on Johnson and another one over the top. It did not matter to him. He still did whatever he wanted to on the field.
The controversy here is that Johnson is number one despite playing just nine seasons, but we have to look at the dominance he showcased during this run. There was nobody who was the physical freak that Johnson was and utilized it as well as he did.