The wide receiver position has increasingly become one of the most important positions on the field as offenses evolve around the passing game and over the years has produced some of the NFL’s biggest stars and flashiest personalities.
Wide receivers make themselves heard, in more ways than one, and the talent at the position continues to get better and better. In 2020, eight receivers were taken in the first round of the NFL Draft, a signal of just how valuable the position has become.
It takes a special player with the combinations of size, speed, hands and athleticism to stand out above the rest at the position and do it consistently over the years.
Some of the best wide receivers to ever play the game have taken the field over the last 20-30 years and surely there are some great ones playing right now, such as guys like Julio Jones, Davante Adams and Michael Thomas.
While they may one day have their case to make this list, we look at the 10 greatest NFL wide receivers of all time.
10. Cris Carter
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Many fans of a younger generation may recognize Cris Carter as a TV personality, but before his career in media he was one of the best to do it on the field. The Hall of Fame wide receiver was an eight-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro over an impressive 16-year career in the NFL.
Carter was a late bloomer, recording his first 1,000-yard season at 28 years old, but it marked the beginning of eight consecutive seasons of 1,000-plus yards receiving for Carter. In 1994, when Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon joined the team, Carter led the NFL with 122 reception and then posted the same number of receptions the following year while leading the league with 17 touchdown catches — tied for sixth-most in a single season.
Even when Moon left and Brad Johnson became QB, Carter led the league in touchdowns two more times and had five straight seasons of double-digit scores, finishing with 130 TDs by the end of his career, which ranks fourth all time.
9. Lance Alworth
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Receivers putting up 1,000-yard seasons is not uncommon in the modern NFL, but it was rare territory in the 1960s when offenses were more of a ground and pound style. Which is why Lance Alworth makes the list.
The Hall of Fame receiver who spent most of his career with the San Diego Chargers strung together seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons from 1963-1969, leading the league three times in that span, including a 1,602-yard season in 1965, which still holds up as 21st among the single-season receiving yards leaders.
Alworth also led the league in receiving touchdowns three times, finishing with double-digits five times in his 11-year career. He was a seven-time Pro Bowler and six-time All-Pro, winning a Super Bowl toward the end of his career with the Cowboys in 1971 and an AFL Championship in 1963.
8. Calvin Johnson
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It is hard to find a player who just looked so much bigger, faster and stronger than his competition than Calvin Johnson. His physical feature and dominant talent earned him the nickname “Megatron” during his nine-year career with the Detroit Lions that consisted of six Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams.
His 2012 season was one of the best ever by a wide receiver, hauling in a league-leading 122 receptions and finishing with an NFL single-season record 1,964 receiving yards, which still stands today.
He is one of just five players to have two seasons of at least 1,600 receiving yards and has the most receiving yards in a single game in regulation with 329, which came against the Cowboys on Oct. 27, 2013 (Flipper Anderson of the Rams had 336 in 1989 but had the help of overtime).
Had Johnson not retired at 30 he likely would have found himself higher on this list and is why he was enshrined into Canton in 2021.
7. Marvin Harrison
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Perhaps Marvin Harrison does not put together a Hall of Fame career without quarterback Peyton Manning, but the duo was one of the most feared QB-WR combos in recent memory. Harrison, an eight-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro, led the league in receiving yards twice, receptions twice and touchdowns once.
His 143 receptions in 2002 was an NFL record in a single season until Michael Thomas broke it in 2019. His eight seasons of at least 10 touchdowns ranks third behind Jerry Rice and Randy Moss. He ranks fifth all time on touchdown leaders and receptions and ninth all time on the career touchdown leaders.
6. Steve Largent
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Steve Largent is another wide receiver who was arguably ahead of his time. Playing for the Seattle Seahawks from 1976-1989, Largent had eight seasons of 1,000 yards receiving, leading the league twice, and was a seven-time Pro Bowler and All-Pro in 1985. When he retired in 1989, he held the career receptions, receiving yards and touchdown records and did not exactly have Hall of Fame QBs in Jim Zorn and Dave Krieg throwing the ball his way, either. His 100 career receiving touchdowns still rank as 10th most all time.
5. Larry Fitzgerald
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Larry Fitzgerald is the model of consistency and it has led him to having one of the all-time great careers at the position. The 11-time Pro Bowler ranks second on the all-time receptions list (1,432) and receiving yards (17,492), trailing Jerry Rice in each, and is sixth on the all-time receiving touchdowns list (121).
He has eight seasons of at least 90 receptions, the most in NFL history, and five seasons of at least 100, tied for third most of all time. While Fitzgerald has only played in nine career playoff games, he holds all sorts of postseason records courtesy of the Cardinals playoff run, including most touchdowns in a single postseason (7), most receiving yards in a postseason (546) and most postseason games with at least 150 receiving yards (3).
4. Don Hutson
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Don Hutson is like the godfather of wide receivers. He paved the way for the position for others during his playing career, which spanned from 1935-1945 with the Green Bay Packers.
Obviously, playing in that era, he averaged 4.2 receptions per game, but led the league in receptions eight times, receiving yards seven times and receiving touchdowns eight times. Some of his numbers were quite impressive, including his 1942 season in which he had 74 catches for 1,211 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns — a respectable line in 2021 let alone 1942.
Hutson was also a four-time Pro Bowler and eight-time All-Pro, winning three NFL championships as well making him one of the most accomplished receivers ever and certainly the greatest of his era. His 99 career touchdowns still rank 11th on the all time list.
3. Terrell Owens
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Owens may be one of the most polarizing players in NFL history with his on-field celebrations, beefs with quarterbacks and his infamous driveway press conference while doing sit-ups. But on the field, he was dominant.
Owens was a six-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro with his prime years coming in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas. He led the league in receiving touchdowns three times and had nine seasons of at least 1,000 yards receiving. Owens ranks third all-time in both receiving yards and touchdowns and is eighth all-time in receptions.
2. Randy Moss
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Moss has recently laid claim that he is the GOAT wide receiver in recent years, and he has a pretty good argument, to be honest. The Hall of Famer was a six-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro, leading the league in receiving touchdowns five seasons, including the single-season TD record in 2007, previously held by Jerry Rice, while with the New England Patriots team that went undefeated in the regular season in large part due to the presence of Moss as a weapon for Tom Brady.
Moss has 10 seasons of at least 1,000 yards receiving, with eight of those being 1,200 or more. He’s No. 4 on career receiving yards and second in touchdowns behind Rice. He was, unquestionably, the most feared receiver of his era.
1. Jerry Rice
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There is no doubt about who the No. 1 wide receiver of all time is. Nobody has dominated the position the way Rice did in his career. A 13-time Pro Bowler and 10-time All-Pro, Rice led the NFL in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns six times each and is the all-time career leader in each of those categories. He had 14 seasons of at least 1,000 yards and 11 seasons of at least 1,200 yards.
Rice was also a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Niners, winning the Super Bowl XXIII MVP with 11 receptions for 215 yards and a touchdown in a 20-16 win over the Bengals. He played in four Super Bowls total (the other with the Raiders in 2002) and had eight touchdowns combined in those games.
Jerry Rice is unquestionably the GOAT when it comes to wide receivers.
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