A dominant wide reciever needs super speed and soft hands. The Sports Zone looks at some of the NFL's top receivers.
Wide Receivers - Just Catch The Ball
A wide receiver's job in football is pretty simple - catch the ball. A good wide receiver must have super speed, good hands and great football sense. They need to be able to both catch the ball and have the speed to run for yards after making a catch. Besides being fast and talented, a wide reciever needs to have good concentration and be able to run smart passing routes so the quarterback has somewhere to throw him the ball. Many of the NFL's top wide recievers were former track runners and are usually tall and lean. The wide receiver is a "flash position" - receivers are the ones that score the touchdowns and make the highlights on Sports Center. As a result, wide receivers tend to be quite self-absorbed and have big egos.
Wide Receivers - NFL's Best
- Chad Johnson - Johnson is a big reason the Cincinnati Bengals have finally turned into a playoff team. Johnson has good size, stretches the field and has developed some of the NFL's best touchdown dances.
- Marvin Harrison - Harrison and quarterback Peyton Manning have hooked up for more TDs than any other reciever-quarterback combo in NFL history. The Indy reciever runs good routes, has great concentration and always seems to end up at the right place at the right time.
- Steve Smith - The Carolina Panthers' wide receiver doesn't have great height for a wide receiver but he has incredible speed and picks up great YAC (yards after catch - the number of yards a receiver picks up after catching the ball).
- Randy Moss - When he's not mowing down cops with his car or mooning Green Bay Packers' fans, Randy Moss is a touchdown machine. Moss has great size, the NFL's best hands and would have better stats if the Oakland Raiders didn't have such a weak quarterback.
- Terrell Owens - He may have a big mouth and even bigger ego, but T.O. is still one of the NFL's best receivers. He has great speed, good size and always wants the ball.
Wide Receivers - Facts and Records
- Jerry Rice, who played for San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle, holds the NFL record for most career receptions, with 1,549.
- Tight Pants - Wide receivers usually wear their pants really tight, both for comfort and to avoid giving defenders anything to grab on to.
- On December 17, 2000, Terrell Owens set an NFL record by making 20 receptions for the San Francisco 49ers in a game against the Chicago Bears.
Related Stories:
- Terrell Owens Biography
- Randy Moss Biography
- Offensive Lineman: Big Men, Big Job
- More Stories On Your Fave Pro Athletes
