Best Wide Receivers In The NFL.

How valuable are wide receivers to their teams?

  As a fan, I enjoy watching wide receivers make incredible plays on the field. It is thrilling to see a receiver make catches with one hand, catch passes with two feet inbounds, and running by defensive backs for big gains and/or touchdowns. Quarterbacks appreciate a reliable wideout. They like to have one dependable wide receiver on their side to whom they could throw the ball to for a huge conversion or for a much-needed score. It is considered a luxury to have a superstar wide receiver on your team. However, teams don't need an ultra-talented wide-out to win playoff games and championships. Last elite receiver to win a Super Bowl was Marvin Harrison in 2006. It has been a decade plus now since an elite receiver helped his team win a Super Bowl. Receivers don't have to be great to win Super Bowls. They just need to make great clutch plays to win big games for their teams. For instance, David Tyree in 2007 season made a helmet catch against the Patriots to win the Super Bowl for the Giants. In 2008, it was Santonio Holmes who made a toe-tapping catch in the end-zone to seal a Super Bowl victory for the Steelers. Recently, Julian Edelman has made several clutch-catches in the last two Super Bowl wins for the Patriots. So it is proven that teams don't need an elite receiver to win Super Bowls. With all that said, let's look at the five best receivers in the game. I am going to highlight their greatness, stats, and what they should do in order to win more games, especially in the playoffs.

Antonio Brown.

  Since his second-year in the league, Brown has received a lot of targets from his quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Antonio Brown has received over hundred targets in each of the past seven seasons. It seems like, he pretty much catches everything that is thrown in his direction. For his career in 115 games, Brown has been targeted 1107 times, caught 773 passes, recorded 9910 receiving yards, and caught 59 touchdowns. In the last five years, he hasn't had a single season in which he caught less than a hundred passes, and in the last two seasons, he didn't even play all sixteen games. Antonio Brown since 2013 has played 75 games and recorded 582 receptions. Meaning, Brown is averaging almost eight catches per game (7.76 per game). Every defense knows and treats him like a number one receiver, yet they can't stop him from catching the ball and making plays. The only issue with Brown is that at times he celebrates too much. Nothing wrong with making plays and then celebrating, but celebrating excessively is something that annoys everyone. Antonio Brown's excessive celebrations have cost his team field positions, and at times winning games. He needs to stop doing that and focus more on finding ways to help his team win games. Brown needs to be a leader of the team, not a cheerleader! Even Brown knows he is too good of a receiver to act as a cheerleader on the field.

Julio Jones.

In my opinion, he's built like a perfect wide receiver as he is 6-3, 220 pounds, and is all muscle. He can run by any corner. He can run through any defender as he is very strong. He can outjump anyone. Julio Jones at his size can do it all! So far in his young career, Jones has been targeted 925 times, caught 585 passes, recorded 9054 receiving yards, and has scored 40 touchdowns. In terms of yards per game, Julio Jones is really good, as his yards per game is 95.3. However, for his height and body structure, he is not the monster in the red-zone as people would expect him to be. As I said, he is capable of outjumping anyone on the field, but for some reason when the Atlanta Falcons get in the red-zone area, Matt Ryan doesn't connect with Julio often for touchdowns. In his career so far, Julio Jones has only one season in which he recorded double-digit touchdowns, and that was six years ago in 2012 when he caught ten touchdowns. Last year, Julio Jones played and started all sixteen games, yet he only recorded three touchdowns. No team expects their number one receiver, especially a receiver who is considered to be top three in the league, to have only three touchdowns in sixteen games.

AJ Green.

  If Julio Jones is built like a perfect wide receiver then AJ Green is pretty close to being one too! AJ Green in his career has played and started in 102 games. In 102 games, Green has been targeted 949 times, caught 556 of those targets, has recorded 8213 receiving yards, and scored 57 touchdowns. He's been in the league for seven years and been to the pro-bowl seven times. As good as Julio Jones and Antonio Brown are, they haven't been as dominating from day one as AJ Green has been. In six of his seven years, Green eclipsed the 1000 yard mark. The only year when Green didn't get to reach 1000 yards was the 2016 season when he played only ten games. Even with those ten games, he fell just 36 yards short of reaching 1000 yards, as he finished the year with 964 receiving yards. AJ Green is a very dominate receiver, but he doesn't seem determined to make game winning or game changing plays. He doesn't have the mentality of leading his team to signature victories. If Green was determined to winning games, then he wouldn't have allowed his team to not have a single playoff win in four appearances in the playoffs.

Odell Beckham Jr.

  Easily the league's most exciting receiver to watch. I believe he is also the most talented receiver in the league. Beckham is more talented than Julio Jones and Antonio Brown. For his career in 47 games, Beckham has been targeted 498 times, caught 313 passes, has 4424 receiving yards, and has scored 38 touchdowns. Since Week 12 of 2014, when Beckham and his New York Giants hosted rival Dallas Cowboys, he's been the most popular player in the NFL. It was in that game in which he made the greatest catch of all time. It was that catch on that night that got him the Madden cover, the commercials, helped him sell millions of jerseys, and become a global star. OBJ is supremely talented and a very polarizing figure, however, I wouldn't want him on my team. Why? Beckham is more about promoting himself than winning games. His antics on and off the field distract his team significantly. In 2016 when the Giants went 11-5 and made it to the playoffs for the first time in five years, Beckham along with other Giants' buddies, went on a boat trip just six days before a playoff game in Green Bay, against Aaron Rodgers. Guess what happened in that game? Beckham dropped crucial passes early in the game, never got into a rhythm, and the Giants lost the game 13-38. One would think Beckham would learn his lesson after that day, but he is still doing his antics, and still self-promoting himself. In terms of talent, he is top three or top five, but he is not a winning player.

Deandre Hopkins.

  One of the best receivers in the game who doesn't get enough recognition. Hopkins is a very quiet person and he gets to have great games without making much noise. He is very disciplined, very talented, and always looking to make plays to help his team win games. In his career, he has played and started in 79 games, has been targeted 735 times, caught 413 passes, has 5865 receiving yards, and scored 36 touchdowns. I don't see any issues in Hopkins' game or the way he approaches the game. The only problem with him is that he never got to play with an elite quarterback. Last year for the 2017 season, the Houston Texans finally get an above average quarterback with Deshaun Watson, but then he suffered a season-ending injury midway into the season. In the same season, Hopkins got to put up excellent numbers, as he finished the year with 174 targets, 96 catches, 1378 receiving yards, and 13 touchdowns. Hopkins' numbers in 2017 could have been even better had Watson not got hurt and was able to finish the season. If Deshaun Watson comes back fully healthy in 2018, he can create a scary quarterback and wide receiver combo with Hopkins. With Watson as his quarterback, Hopkins will have a chance to be in the conversation with Julio Jones and Antonio Brown as the best wide receiver in the league.