This week I’ve decided to discuss wide receivers. There are so many high-performance vehicles out there in the world of wide receivers, it is hard to narrow it down to someone who can be considered the best. Last season, we had Randy Moss break the single-season receiving touchdown mark held by Jerry Rice (It should be mentioned, however, that Rice set the record in only 12 games, but had many opportunities before and after that to break his own record). Terrell Owens’ and Marvin Harrison’s lifetime achievements are among the greats who have ever played the game, but both are past their respective primes, and Terrell Owens drops too many passes to be a top-5 guy on my personal list.
Here’s a list of receivers I believe could be argued into the top five, depending on who you’re talking to, and what team they are a fan of:
Andre Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Greg Jennings, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Steve Smith, Santana Moss, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald, Reggie Wayne, Roddy White, Brandon Marshall.
These are currently the top performing receivers in the game. A couple of names I would tend to dismiss right away because of a lack of experience or extreme inconsistency are Santana Moss and Calvin Johnson. Although, in Johnson’s case, I would credit his awful team more with his lack of legitimate receiving numbers to put him on this list, rather than his inexperience. With even a decent quarterback throwing him the ball, he could be right up there.
The ideal receiver doesn’t exist in a single person, but would possess a few characteristics of different receivers in the NFL, for example:
Hands: Kevin Faulk, as far as I can tell, has the best hands in the entire National Football League. In all of my years watching football, I’ve never seen a player show such a staggering variety of improbably catches. Kevin Faulk can catch balls that are darting at him at approximately 90mph into his inconveniently bouncy chest pads. He’s caught numerous balls that if not for her perfect receiving fingers, would bounce off the tops of his shoes and likely be intercepted by a 300-something pound lineman. He’s caught balls thrown a yard behind his forward motion, only to throw one arm out, tip it back to himself, have it bounce of numerous other parts of his body, and finally coming to rest in a cradled arm by his side. He has dived for bad balls, plucking them from incomplete-status just nanoseconds before they brush the blades of grass below. And most importantly, he never misses the rare times when a perfect pass will float his way and hit him in stride, and almost always has an acute awareness of where the first down marker is, and he gets there. I simply don’t know how he does it, but he does. I personally believe Kevin Faulk (Three Super Bowl rings were enough for people to agree that Brady was a Hall of Famer, how much does this phenomenon effect the vital role players of the team?) should eventually be voted into the Hall of Fame, but that is a conversation for another day.
Routes: Whether this comes with age and experience, or whether these guys simply always possessed uncanny skills in the area, Torry Holt and Marvin Harrison are the best route-runners since probably Jerry Rice. Unfortunately since their respective teams have apparently forgotten that they still start on offense for them, they can’t possibly be included on this list. These are types of guys, however, that can have a telestrated line of the textbook route they are about to run drawn on the screen, and they wouldn’t waiver a step. If they ever had to walk a line during a field sobriety test, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them ace with flying colors, as long as they could request to walk a post or fly pattern.
Speed: These are the guys that get open because of pure speed and quickness. Usually, this group includes a lot of crazy-good, crazy-small players that slip in and out of coverage almost undetected. Examples in the game right now include Steve Smith, Wes Welker, DeSean Jackson, Lee Evans and Steve Breaston. They couldn’t dunk with a stepladder and a 6-inch diameter Nerf basketball, but they can get open as if there’s no coverage at all on them, and usually run after the catch. It’s not limited to diminutive receivers, however, as I would certainly include Randy Moss, Greg Jennings, Terrell Owens, Anquan Boldin and Calvin Johnson in this group. Ironically, this group also includes some of the bravest (and therefore, dumbest) receivers in the game, running head-first into linebackers twice their weight in order to get the extra two-and-a-half yards needed for a first down on third-and-8 in a game-tying drive in the 4th quarter. AKA: Go-to-Guys.
Strength and Jumping: An undervalued part of a receivers game. These two usually fit together, because when a receiver needs to use his strength the most is usually going for a jump ball and wrestling it away from a pesky corner in man coverage or a wild safety who will fight to the death for any chance at an interception (e.g. Rodney Harrison, Troy Polamalu, Adrian Wilson…). There are a lucky few receivers who possess the strength, size and jumping ability to come down with almost any pass, against even the best of backs such as Antonio “Let me Just Grab This” Cromartie, such as Anquan Boldin, Chad Johnson, James Hardy, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Terrell Owens (If he can actually catch it), and, surprisingly for his thin frame, Randy Moss.
Smarts: There are some receivers in the game who simply outsmart everyone on the field when they’re playing. This is a much smaller field, as many receivers have large egos to accompany their insane statistics. Throughout college ball and practices, many are likely to ignore advice from coaches, and especially other receivers, relying on their god-given ability to let their accomplishments play out on the field. These players include, but are not limited to: Wes Welker, Randy Moss (Any coincidence the smartest coach in the game got these two guys together?), T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Larry Fitzgerald, Troy Brown (Hey, he only retired this year, I’m still counting him in this group because he may have been the smartest receiver in this decade), Reggie Bush (Yup), Marvin Harrison, Torry Holt (The textbook route-runners, not a coincidence either), Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Jason Witten (Tight ends are forced to out-wit defensive players because of an assortment of packages they run including pass-blocking, run blocking, short and deep routes and the different types of defenders they match up against (Linemen, linebackers, corners and safeties all will have an assignment to cover a tight end at some point in a game, depending on the player’s release).
Bringing all these attributes together is something that would seem like an impossibly difficult task, but here are the top 5 guys that I believe do the best job of it, and their stats (and NFL rank) this season:
5. Wes Welker, New England Patriots - 72 catches (2nd), 781 yards (11th), 1 TD. Possesses smarts, speed (and filthy quickness - different from speed in that kind of “I just had him in my sights, where the $()*&@ did he go!?” type of way), hands and route running. Also has an shocking ability to whack a linebacker in the chest backward two yards on his way to a hard-earned first down. On pace to break his own franchise record of 112 catches with the only thing being thrown by Tom Brady is money at his supermodel girlfriend.
4. Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals - 67 catches (4th), 939 yards (2nd), 6 TD. Possesses speed, route-running, hands, size/strength/jumping ability. One of the most physically gifted receivers I’ve seen in my lifetime, save for the guy on the opposite side of the field.
3. Andre Johnson, Houston Texans - 71 catches (3rd), 955 yards (1st), 3 TD. Possesses ridiculous speed, route-running, hands, s/s/ja and smarts. Has been able to produce pro-bowl type numbers even with David Carr at the helm for the beginning of his career. One of those receivers, however, who we will always have to wonder about: What would he do with a HOF-type QB?
2. T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Cincinnati Bengals - 77 catches (1st), 746 yards (9th), 4 TD. Possesses unique speed and quickness, smarts (and genius when compared to his co-star Chad Ocho-Stinko), pristine route-running, and great hands. His 77 catches, some from Carson Palmer, and many others from a guy who I can never remember whether he’s Ryan Fitzpatrick or Patrick Fitzryan, prove he is the premiere pass-catching go-to guy in the game. The only thing that bugs me about this guy is everyone in professional sports coverage staunch refusal to pronounce his name correctly, despite the fact its spelled out phonetically.
1. Anquan Boldin, Arizona Cardinals - 62 catches (6th), 792 yards (7th), 10 TD (1st). Possesses break-neck speed and quickness, smarts, route-running, Faulk-like hands and an unparalleled size/strength/jumping ability that makes him the Alpha and Omega of goal line receivers. His fearless patrol of the middle of the field, speed to win a footrace downfield, hands to catch a ball thrown anywhere at any speed, and the physical gifts to rip a ball away from anyone, anywhere (especially in the end zone) make Anquan Boldin the best receiver in the game today. Boldin’s unique natural ability, respect and love for the game and its intricacies, along with his Will Smith in “Pursuit of Happyness” workmanship are enough for me to bestow this title on him.
So there you go. It’s my list, and I’m sticking to it. I know fans of other receivers will be livid with the exclusion of certain names, so here’s some advice for a few of them…
Steve Smith: More consistency, stop sucker-punching teammates and running your mouth about watching yourself on NFL Network when you should be paying attention to the game.
Terrell Owens: Stop dropping easily catchable passes, then celebrating like a “Dance for Pennies” street performer when you actually grab one for a score.
Randy Moss: What happened to you “Jump to the Moon” special move? Haven’t seen it at all this season, and smaller defensive backs are starting to make you look a little bad. Play like your money depends on it, and you could be right back at the top of this list.
Roddy White, Marques Colston, Greg Jennings and especially Calvin Johnson: You’re well on your way.
Reggie Wayne: You barely missed being #5, and that may or may not be just because you’re a Colt and Wes is a Patriot. But with Marvin disappearing from the game plans, you should be setting the NFL on fire right now. Better get on that if you want to breach the list next year…
Picks column tomorrow…
