NFL 10,000 Yard Receivers: 1993-2000

With longer seasons and liberalized rules that favor the passing game, most NFL receivers with eye-popping career statistics are fairly recent, at least 21st-century. But in this six-part series, I'll go back through the history of major pro football leagues and write about every receiver with at least 10,000 career receiving yards. This is part two. You can find part one (Maynard, Alworth, Jackson, Joiner, Largent, Lofton, Morgan, Monk, Rice) here. In this post, I'll cover all the remaining 10,000-yard receivers who began their NFL careers in the 1980s.

Henry Ellard
Los Angeles Rams, 1983-93; Washington, 1994-98; New England Patriots, 1998
814 receptions, 13,777 yards, 16.9 avg, 666 estimated 1D, 65 TD
10,000 yards in: 1994, Week 3
1 consensus All-Pro, 2 AP All-Pro, 3 Pro Bowls

Henry Ellard was the 10th player to amass at least 10,000 receiving yards in a major league. When Ellard retired, he was third all-time in receiving yards, and tied for third in 1,000-yard seasons (7). The only player ahead of him in both statistics was Jerry Rice. Through 1994, the season in which Ellard reached 10k, he and Rice were the only receivers with four 1,250-yard seasons.

What most distinguished Ellard wasn't yardage, though: it was first downs. Nearly 90% of Ellard's receptions went for first downs, the highest figure in his generation and probably one of the highest all-time (first downs didn't become an official statistic until 1991). In 1994, Ellard caught 74 passes for 71 first downs, a 95.9% rate that is the highest on record.

Prior to 1991 the "estimated 1D" figures in this post are derived from the following formula: receptions * [.55 + (yds/rec – 10) * 0.0312]

This estimation is imperfect, but it usually produces an acceptable approximation. I have only found one exception important enough to be worth noting: players in Norv Turner offenses. Turner was Ellard's position coach from 1985-90, and his head coach from 1994-98. From 1991-98, the eight seasons of Ellard's career for which we have official first down data, the formula underestimates Ellard's actual first down production every year, selling him short by double-digits twice (1991 and '94) and by 42 first downs overall. Extending what we know about Ellard and Turner to earlier seasons, I suspect that Ellard gained more than 700 first downs in his career. Without any question, Ellard was 2nd all-time in receiving first downs when he retired.

Ellard was probably the greatest pure athlete of his generation playing wide receiver. He was a great leaper, an All-American triple jumper at Fresno State, and he was blazing fast, with split-second acceleration that defenders couldn't match. He had tremendous agility, and he was an All-Pro punt returner. In his first three seasons, Ellard returned 83 punts for 1,121 yards (13.5 avg) and 4 touchdowns (4.8 TD%). The NFL average in those seasons was 8.8 yards per return and 0.8 TD%, so Ellard gained 53% more yardage and 6 times as many TDs as an average returner. In 1988, when Ellard caught a team-record 86 passes and led the NFL in receiving yards, Rams head coach John Robinson lamented the loss the league's most explosive returner, "Part of me still wants Henry returning punts."

As Ellard's role on offense grew, his athletic skills helped him to excel as a receiver, but he had technique to complement his athleticism. He was an excellent route runner. Norv Turner called Ellard "the best route-runner I've ever seen." Pro Bowl quarterback Jim Everett rhapsodized about Ellard's precision routes: "Every step has a purpose." Writing on Twitter in 2014, Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders singled out Ellard as the receiver who gave him the most trouble.

Ellard's excellence is validated by his stats: all those yards, all those first downs. Ellard is unusual in that he was essentially a possession receiver who was also the greatest deep threat of his era. There are 43 receivers in NFL history with at least 800 receptions. Among those 43, Ellard has the highest yards per reception (16.93) ... by almost a yard. He's 0.95 ahead of Steve Largent, 1.35 ahead of Randy Moss, 1.90 in front of Irving Fryar, and better than two yards ahead of anyone else. James Lofton, who caught 764 passes and had an even higher average than Ellard, is really the only comparable player.

During his career, Ellard was recognized as one of the league's best WRs, but his official awards and honors don't reflect that. He made only three Pro Bowls, one of them as a returner. However, Ellard was not chosen to the Pro Bowl in 1990, when he was 2nd in the NFL — not just in the NFC — in receiving yards (1,294). The same thing happened in 1994, when Ellard's 1,397 yards ranked 2nd in the league, and he was passed over. Personally, I believe reaching 1,000 yards with Heath Shuler as your quarterback deserves a statue in your honor, to say nothing of almost 1,400, but evidently the voters weren't impressed.

The same thing happened with All-Pro voting. The Associated Press and Sporting News chose him first-team All-Pro as a returner in 1984, and the Sporting News took him again in '85. Ellard was a consensus All-Pro receiver in 1988, and UP named him second-team All-Conference in '89. He spent more than 20 years on the Pro Football Hall of Fame ballot before advancing even to the semifinalist stage, the round of 25, and he was never a finalist.

Ellard was a great receiver, who would have set records if not for Jerry Rice, and he was the best punt returner of the mid-80s. He was a Hall of Fame semifinalist as a Senior candidate this year, and I hope the committee will reconsider him in the future.

Gary Clark
Washington, 1985-92; Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals, 1993-94; Miami Dolphins, 1995
699 receptions, 10,856 yards, 15.5 avg, 492 estimated 1D, 65 TD
10,000 yards in: 1994, Week 13
3 AP All-Pro, 4 Pro Bowls

Despite playing alongside Hall of Famer Art Monk, Gary Clark led Washington in receiving yardage six times in eight years — including the 1987 and 1991 Super Bowl seasons — and he was the leading receiver in Super Bowl XXVI, with 7 catches for 114 yards and a score.

Monk was Washington's possession receiver and chain-mover, but Clark was the deep threat. For years, Monk was passed over in HOF voting partially because Giants players told the New York sportswriters that Clark was Washington's best receiver. Their lack of respect for Monk may explain why he caught 900 passes, but Clark was the deep threat and the touchdown guy — the one who would really make you look bad.

Clark was so undersized that it was noticeable, almost always the smallest man on the field. He was fast, though, with good hands and good at positioning himself to beat defenders for the ball. Despite his size, he was an above-average blocker. So much of a receiver's blocking is just about desire and effort, and Clark had both.

Clark played well for the USFL's Jacksonville Bulls in 1984, and made an immediate impact in Washington when the rival league folded. He was the first player in NFL history to catch at least 50 passes in each of his first 10 NFL seasons. He never played with exceptional QBs, apart from a cup of coffee with Dan Marino in 1995, Clark's final season, and he played in ball control offenses under Joe Gibbs. He also had to share targets with Hall of Famer Art Monk and two-time 1,000-yard receiver Ricky Sanders. In 1989, Clark, Monk, and Sanders became only the second trio in NFL history to all gain 1,000 receiving yards in the same season. They are still the only group to all exceed 1,100. Football Perspective's Chase Stuart has written about how impressive Clark's 1991 stats are in the context of his team. He makes a compelling argument, and I'd recommend checking it out if you're not familiar.

Andre Reed
Buffalo Bills, 1985-99; Washington, 2000
951 receptions, 13,198 yards, 13.9 avg, 637 estimated 1D, 87 TD
10,000 yards in: 1996, Week 3
Hall of Fame, 2 AP All-Pro, 7 Pro Bowls

A fourth-round draft pick out of Division II Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Reed was the third receiver with 900 catches, the fifth with 13,000 yards, and the 11th with 80 TDs. He was the 12th player to reach 10,000 career receiving yards.

Reed didn't have one outstanding attribute, like Henry Ellard's explosiveness or Steve Largent's hands, but he was above-average almost across the board. Reed was a good route-runner and he had good hands. He wasn't a classic downfield burner, but he had good speed. He wasn't big (6-2, 190), but he was tough.

Reed's most exceptional quality probably had to do with yards after the catch. He was terrific with the ball in his hands: fast, good at reading the field and eluding tacklers, with good balance so he didn't succumb to arm tackles. Teammate and 7-time Pro Bowler Steve Tasker called Reed "the greatest run-after-catch receiver in NFL history." In addition to YAC, Reed rushed for 500 yards, more than any career WR except Jerry Rice.

Reed had five 100-yard receiving games in the postseason, including his famous 3-TD game in the Bills' record-setting comeback against Houston in the 1992 wild card round.

Reed retired with the second-most receptions of all time, trailing only Jerry Rice. Rice casts a shadow over every receiver from this generation. It's hard to lead the league in anything when you're playing at the same time as the greatest player in history. In 2012, I actually looked at this in depth: how would receiving records, and our perceptions of players like Henry Ellard, Gary Clark, and Andre Reed change ... if Jerry Rice had never played football?

Henry Ellard

In 1989, Ellard might have been second-team All-Pro instead of merely second-team All-Conference.

In 1990, Ellard would have led the NFL in receiving yards. He probably would have made the Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro. Ellard also would have become the first player since Lance Alworth to go over 4,000 receiving yards in a three-year period, and the only one ever to gain 1,250 yards in three consecutive seasons. He actually did this anyway, but his accomplishment was simultaneous with Rice, who did the same thing over the same three years.

In 1994, Ellard would have led the NFL in receiving yards for the third time, the NFL's first three-time leader since Raymond Berry (or Alworth, if you count the AFL). Ellard probably would have made the Pro Bowl, and perhaps second-team All-Pro.

In 1996, Ellard would have become 2nd all-time in receiving yards, behind only James Lofton.

If my projections are correct, that gives Ellard 5 Pro Bowls (instead of 3) and 4-5 All-Pro selections, plus some impressive black ink. Alworth, Berry, Don Hutson, and Ellard would be the only players ever to lead a major league in receiving yards three times.

Changing nothing else about his career, Ellard, who has never been a Hall of Fame finalist, would probably be in Canton if Rice had become a golfer or something instead.

Gary Clark