Jerry Rice Is The Greatest Receiver of All Time! Is He?

  

  
   When you ask a football fan about who the greatest receiver in NFL history is, ninety to ninety-five percent would say Jerry Rice within a second. According to NFL Network, Jerry rice is the greatest player of all time, not just the greatest receiver. Well I totally disagree with that assessment, but I do struggle with the statement of him being the greatest receiver. His numbers are out of this world and definitely say that he is the greatest. If we are going to use numbers to determine who the best player in the game is at a certain position or any position in that case, it would mean that Dan Marino is a lot better QB than Joe Montana or John Elway. If we use numbers in the game of basketball, then Wilt Chamberlain is the greatest basketball player of all time and no one even comes close, not even Jordon. Well I will discuss the impact made by each of the top five consensus wide receivers in the history of the NFL. So who are the top five receivers according to the football experts? Well other than Rice being at everyone's number one spot, most experts have Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Don Hudson, and Marvin Harrison in their top five list of wide receivers. Let's see what each of these receivers got to do to leave their mark in the NFL.


   Marvin Harrison was just so reliable! He was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the first round with the 19th pick. He spent all of his thirteen seasons with the Colts franchise. If a team keeps you for over a decade, means you are a great player and too special for that team. What Harrison did for the Colts was a lot more than what his coaches could have expected from him. Throughout his career, Harrison caught over eleven hundred receptions, over fourteen thousand receiving yards and had 128 touchdown receptions. He led the league in receiving yards twice in his career and was once tied with Steve Smith Sr for most touchdown receptions in a season. Two of his records might never be broken. He has a single-season record of 143 receptions in 2002, which happened to be very productive for him and his team. That year, he also added 1700 plus receiving yards and eleven touchdowns. The record-setting year was the last of his four straight seasons with at least hundred catches. For some great receivers, it is hard to have even two seasons with hundred catches. Harrison's quarterback heavily relied on his supreme talent and effort. Whenever the quarterback needed to make a play, he went to the direction of Harrison. The QB almost always came up with the results that he desired. Harrison's quarterback was very lucky to have him as his wide receiver. Or was Harrison the lucky player? Well, there is no denying that Harrison was a talented wide receiver, who was expected to perform but, if it wasn't for Peyton Manning (Harrison's QB for eleven of his thirteen years), he certainly wouldn't have the production that he had throughout his football career. Marvin Harrison has another record in the NFL which he shares with Peyton Manning. The record is for the most touchdowns by a quarterback and wide receiver duo of 112 touchdowns. The 112 mark is twenty more touchdowns than the second closest combo of quarterback and wide receiver. So yes he has great numbers and performed big in many crucial situations of the big games for his team. Then again, he did have a great quarterback throwing him the ball. He just didn't have a great quarterback throwing him the ball, he had another great receiver (Reggie Wayne) playing across him and he also had other solid offensive weapons on his side. So having played with  the third greatest quarterback of all time and other great weapons, he had a lot of help and it definitely benefited him with beating corners and putting up mind-boggling stats. We can't really say he is the greatest receiver of all time because of everything that surrounded him.

   There have been bunch of eras in which we had many great receivers competing for the best receiver of the game. In none of those eras we had a receiver who could be clearly concerned the best wide receiver in the game. Except for one era. That era was the 'Don Hutson' era. In those years, no receiver came close to him in terms of impact and production. Yes Jerry Rice's all time numbers are way ahead of Don Hutson and other great receivers, but during all the seasons Rice played in, even his prime seasons, he didn't put on a performance or stats which couldn't be matched by others. Well yes he did have one season in which he played only twelve games and put up twenty-two touchdowns, which cant be matched at all. However, it was just one season in which he put himself way ahead of everyone else. Don Hutson, was way ahead of everyone else in all of his eleven years. After all, it was him who came up with so many new routes at the time and which are still used today. Hutson in his time, led the league in receiving yards seven times, which is still a record. He led the league in receptions, which is still a record. Also, he led the league in touchdown receptions nine times, which is also still a record. So basically nine out of eleven years, he was ahead of everybody when it came to catching touchdowns. Remember he did all this in the 30s and the 40s, and passing the ball wasn't so familiar. He was doing all this before 'west coast' offense came in and set the league as a pass-first league. You think Rice's record of 22 touchdowns in twelve games is impressive? What about Hutson catching almost three times as many receptions as the second closest receiver in 1942? That year he caught 74 passes, which was forty seven more passes than the receiver who finished second in receptions in 1942. No one was close to him when it came to running routes, catching deep balls and coming up with touchdown catches in his era. To be so different and so much better than everyone else at the wide receiver position in the 30s and 40s, is just hard to digest. Oh unlike Marvin Harrison, he didn't have Peyton Manning throwing him the ball. Unlike Terrell Owens, he didn't have Steve Young, Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb or even Tony Romo throwing him the ball. He didn't even have Daunte Culpepper or Tom Brady (GOAT) throwing him footballs. Oh yes, he certainly didn't have two of the best quarterbacks in the game, Joe Montana and Steve Young passing him the ball for ten straight years. Don Hutson had Arnie Herber, Cecil Isbell, and Irv Comp as his quarterbacks during his eleven years in the league. Well these quarterbacks weren't bad by any means, as one of them went to the hall of fame and another went to the pro bowl four times. However, Irv Comp (who I am sure isn't a known packer for majority of the viewers) in his first season after Hutson retired, probably had the worst season as a quarterback in the history of football, as he finished the season with single digit passer rating. Don Hutson was more dominating in his era than any receiver was in his era. His record of 99 touchdown receptions was held for forty-four years until Steve Largent broke it in the 1980s. He set such an incredible record for a receiver when not much was expected of the receivers, since teams didn't focus on passing the football that much. Don Hutson was truly an incredible player at his position.

   Terrell Owens and Randy Moss are two of the most talented receivers NFL has ever seen. They put up gigantic numbers and fear amognst all defensivebacks in the game. Everyone had expectations for Randy Moss coming out of the draft and most scouts projected him to be a high pick in the first round. Moss was eventually drafted by the Minnesota Vikings with the 21st pick in the first round. As for Owens, he was drafted in the third round by the San Francisco 49ers, as scouts didn't know much about him since he played for a losing team in a weak college conference. Both of these receivers took the league by storm. Terrell Owens with his size, route skills, determination caught thousand plus passes, over 15,000 receiving yards and over 150 touchdown receptions. Moss on the other hand, with his size, super speed, and freakish leap, just destroyed cornerbacks throughout the league for about thousand receptions, over 15,000 receiving yards and over 150 touchdown receptions. Both Owens and Moss helped their teams reach new heights statistically and record wise. The 49ers were always a solid offensive team in the 90s with Steve Young at quarterback and Jerry Rice at wide receiver, but once they added Terrell Owens to their arsenal, the offense went onto another level. Minnesota Vikings in the 90s were just hanging around in the middle of the pack, but when Randy Moss came to town, the offense of the Vikings became explosive. The offense was super scary as it broke all scoring records in Moss's rookie season. In his rookie season, Randy Moss set a record of most touchdown catches by a rookie. The two receivers later on in their careers, also significantly helped the other teams that they played for. Terrell Owens led the Philadelphia Eagles to a super bowl appearance in 2004 for the first time since the 1980s. Randy Moss in 2007, like T.O, led the New England Patriots to a super bowl, but on his way to the super bowl, he set a record for most touchdown receptions in a season by a wide receiver and helped the patriots became the highest scoring offense in the history of the NFL at the time. The two did a lot of great things for their teams but, they were also headaches for all them as well.

  

As Skip Bayeless (analyst from Undisputed on Fox) say, 'where ever T.O went, teams couldn't wait to get rid of him.' Owens had all the talent in the world and teams loved that about him but, his attitude and behavior was just not acceptable to them. Him fighting with Jeff Garcia in San Francisco got him out of the town. T.O fighting with McNabb and dividing the locker room into two halves got him out of Philadelphia. In Dallas, where he played for the America's team, he fought with Jason Witten during the 2007 season and that was enough to get him out of Dallas. Oh by the way, Jason Witten, a decade later, still plays for the Dallas Cowboys. Moss on the other hand wasn't that much about fighting with his teammates and dividing the locker into two, but he was wild and loud. There were times when he couldn't keep his emotions in check. Yes Owens was super-talented, but I can argue that Moss was superior than him in terms of talent. Six years after he helped the Vikings to get back on the football map, Vikings traded him away to the Oakland Raiders for not a whole lot of value. Then after stinking in Oakland for two years, Raiders traded him to the New England Patriots for basically nothing. He got a new life in New England and became a much better receiver than he was in his first six years with the Vikings. He came pretty close to winning the title in 07 and was always in position to make a run for the Super Bowl as he played with the greatest quarterback and the greatest coach of the modern era. He had everything going for him, but no, he had to cry and complain. Moss in 2010, when the season had just started, he said that he didn't feel wanted in New England. Bill Belichick is a no non-sense guy, so he traded him back to the Vikings for a third round pick. Then his career went downwards from there. So both Owens and Moss were scary and talented receivers, but multiple teams couldn't tolerate their behavior. If you as a wide receiver are productive and terrorize cornerbacks but then teams still don't want to keep you for the long run and build around you, then how good are you really? Terrell Owens and Randy Moss both didn't have enough worth to their teams.

  

 

    Jerry Rice's career stats absolutely puts him way ahead of everybody else. 1,549 receptions, most all time, 22,895 receiving yards, most all time, and 197 career touchdown receptions, also most all time. But like I said, if we look just at stats, then Wilt Chamberlain is better than Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and even LeBron James. Jerry Rice was certainly not all about stats, he had talent too and was a three-time champion. He was an excellent route runner as majority of his 22,895 yards came after the catch. However, he wasn't as talented as Randy Moss and Terrell Owens were. But then on the other hand, he was a much better leader than those two were and was definitely not a problem for his general manger, coaches, and all the locker rooms where he spent time. Rice did play for more than one team, as he played for the San Francisco 49ers (1985-2000), Oakland Raiders (2001-04), and Seattle Seahawks for a little over half a season in 2004-05 season. So why couldn't he finish his career with the 49ers? Well after the 2000 season, Jerry Rice had played sixteen full seasons, along with numerous playoff games. In 1999 and 2000, his production had fallen slightly and Terrell Owens had put himself as a true star receiver for the 49ers. All that led the 49ers management to let go of Rice, as releasing him saved the team a whole lot of cap space. Rice wasn't certainly let go because he was a distraction or had lost all of his speed and receiving skills. What amazes me about him is what he did in his two seasons with the Oakland Raiders. In 2001 with his first year the Raiders, Rice caught 83 passes for 1139 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. Then in 2002, in his eighteen (18th!) season in NFL, he caught an incredible 92 passes for 1211 receiving yard and seven touchdowns. To put up such numbers in seventeenth and eighteen seasons is just unheard of for a receiver. Remember the great Don Hutson who I believe is the best receiver of all time, got to play only eleven seasons. The reliable and consistent Marvin Harrsion got to play thirteen seasons. Randy Moss played fourteen seasons and T.O played a total of fifteen seasons. Had Rice retired after the 49ers released him in 2001, he still would had played more seasons than any of these other four great receivers.

So Rice has the career numbers, long jeopardy and was a thousand yard receiver until his nineteenth season, then why isn't he ahead of Don Hutson? As I mentioned earlier, Don Hutson played in an era when throwing the ball wasn't so common. In his time, Don Hutson caught passes three times more than the second closest receiver to him in the league from 1935 to 1945. Plus the hits back then were even worst then the mid 1980s, when Rice came into the league. Finally, Don Hutson' s quarterbacks were solid, but they weren't Joe Montana and Steve Young, who excelled in Bill Walsh's 'West Coast' offense. Jerry Rice got to play with them for a total of fourteen years. Yes Rice did help them too by running excellent routes and catching almost everything thrown his way, but those two quarterbacks were legit, especially Montana. Joe Cool won two super bowl rings without Jerry Rice. He was already a champion and a top three quarterback in the game before Rice got to NFL. We can only imagine what Don Hutson could have done if he had those Montana and Young for a decade or so. It isn't Rice's fault that he came into the league when Bill Walsh had mastered the west coast offense and Joe and Steve were around. However, he knows he was blessed to have them during his NFL career. Don Hutson wasn't even lucky enough to have the best quarterbacks from his era, such as Sammy Baugh or Sid Luckman. Jerry Rice did a lot of incredible things but his production and effort in his eigtheenth season, makes me think otherwise about my assessment of Don Hutson as the greatest receiver of them all. Then again, Hutson played in an era which was more physical than Rice's and his supporting cast wasn't even close to Rice's. Who knows how Rice's career could have been like if the 49ers hadn't trade up for him and gave him such a great opportunity. Don Hutson is the best! If you disagree, I will gladly hear your arguements and respond to them.