NFL 10,000 Yard Receivers: 2003 and 2005

In this six-part series, I'm going through the history of major pro football leagues to write about every receiver with at least 10,000 career receiving yards. This is part three. You can find part one (Maynard, Alworth, Jackson, Joiner, Largent, Lofton, Morgan, Monk, Rice) here and part two (Ellard, Clark, Reed, Fryar, Irvin, Carter, Brown, Rison) here. In this post, I'll cover the 10,000-yard receivers who hit the milestone in 2003 or 2005 (no one topped 10k in '04).

Isaac Bruce
Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams, 1994-2007; San Francisco 49ers, 2008-09
1,024 receptions, 15,208 yards, 14.9 avg, 718 first downs, 91 TD
10,000 yards in: 2003, Week 6
Hall of Fame, 1 AP All-Pro, 4 Pro Bowls

Jerry Rice was the first player with 15,000 receiving yards. Isaac Bruce was the second. Bruce still ranks 5th all-time in receiving yards, he is among the top 10 in receiving first downs, and he is one of only 15 players with at least 90 receiving touchdowns.

Bruce was hard-working, humble, and well-liked. He was a good route-runner, and he was fast enough to worry defenders, but he had the hands of a great possession receiver.

Bruce began his career playing for miserable offenses with miserable quarterbacks, finally got his reputation to match his production when he starred for the Greatest Show on Turf from 1999-2001, and concluded his career with a gradual, gentle decline that saw him record another half-dozen productive seasons to boost his career numbers.

I have compared Bruce in the past to Charlie Joiner, guys with long careers and sensational counting stats, but who weren't usually regarded as being among the very best while they were active. Both also have to fight the perception that their numbers are partly or largely a product of the absurd offenses they played in, where any receiver could become a star.

Bruce was never first-team All-Pro, and never widely considered to be the best wide receiver in the NFL, but he had eight 1,000-yard seasons, including two 1,400-yard seasons, and his career stats are excellent: he continued to add value for his teams when he was no longer an elite player. Bruce was a relatively quiet star, not as awe-inspiring as Randy Moss or as outrageous as Terrell Owens, and he played most of his career in a small market that no longer has an NFL team, so his media profile has never suggested an all-time caliber player. But Bruce just kept making catches, kept moving the chains, and he was a good teammate and good role model for younger players. 15,208 is a lot of yards.

Jimmy Smith
Dallas Cowboys, 1992-93; Jacksonville Jaguars, 1995-2005
862 receptions, 12,287 yards, 14.3 avg, 599 first downs, 67 TD
10,000 yards in: 2003, Week 14
2 AP All-Pro, 5 Pro Bowls

You probably don't remember Jimmy Smith on the Cowboys in 1992. He played seven games and never caught a pass. He didn't play at all the next two years. Smith didn't become a full-time starter until 1996, when he was 27, an age when many players begin to decline.

Smith made the most of the years he did play, with nine 1,000-yard receiving seasons, including five 1,200-yard seasons. He had good size, at 6-foot-1 and 206 pounds, but he was fast and he was a dynamic route-runner. When he teamed with Keenan McCardell, Smith was "Lightning" and McCardell was "Thunder."

Smith was occasionally dogged by drug issues, and his four-game suspension in 2003 probably kept him from becoming the only person besides Jerry Rice with 10 straight 1,000-yard seasons. Smith left the game when he was still a good player: his final season yielded 70 catches, 1023 yards, and 6 TDs. Smith in 2004 gained the third-most receiving yards ever by a 35-year-old (1,172), and he and Rice are the only players ever to gain over 1,000 yards in a season after turning 36.

Marvin Harrison
Indianapolis Colts, 1996-2008
1,102 receptions, 14,580 yards, 13.2 avg, 758 first downs, 128 TD
10,000 yards in: 2003, Week 15
Hall of Fame, 3 consensus All-Pro, 8 AP All-Pro, 8 Pro Bowls, 2000s All-Decade Team, 100th Anniversary Team

Marvin Harrison led the NFL once in receiving TDs, twice in receiving yards, and three times in receiving first downs. He ranks in the all-time top 10 in every major receiving statistic.

Harrison was not the biggest, fastest, or strongest receiver in the game. But he was one of the smartest receivers ever to play, and he worked very hard to be the best; the extra practice hours he put in working with Peyton Manning are legendary. Harrison was the greatest route-runner of his era. Some of his most impressive plays don't make exciting highlights because he's on a short list with Steve Largent and Jerry Rice as guys who repeatedly got open by five yards, just left whoever was covering them out of the picture, so the catch itself looks easy. Harrison also had the best hands of his era, and great football sense and field awareness. He was the finest I ever saw at the toe-tap on the sideline. He had underrated speed (4.37), but his ability to shift gears was more impressive than his top sprint. Varying speed drives defensive backs crazy, and no one in his generation was better at it than Harrison.

I couldn't find any one Marvin Harrison highlights video that I wanted to include here — many of them are too long. But here are three of my favorite Harrison plays:

The Colts still tell stories about this one. GM Bill Polian calls it “the signature catch of his career.” All-Pro center Jeff Saturday remembers the catch as “one of my favorite moments as a Colt.”

“It was hard to overthrow Marvin, but I did,” Manning said. “I threw it and said, ‘I missed him. He’s wide open and I missed him.’” Tony Dungy has a similar story. When he saw Manning overthrow the ball, Dungy "turned to his punt team while the ball was in the air and instructed them to head out on the field." “No, Coach, Marvin caught it,” a player responded.

Everyone focuses on the one-handed catch, and rightfully so, but Harrison also puts on a burst of that underrated speed to pull away from the defensive back and catch up to the ball.

John Madden summed this one up, "Peyton Manning puts it where only Marvin Harrison can catch it, and only Marvin Harrison can make that catch and keep both feet in bounds."

Harrison finds the hole in the zone, sits down, and dives to catch an off-target pass from Manning. Then, in the middle of six Bronco defenders, he jumps to his feet and races to the end zone, a heads-up play from a heads-up player.

Harrison made 8 Pro Bowls. The only wide receivers with more selections are Jerry Rice and Larry Fitzgerald. Harrison also made 8 Associated Press All-Pro teams. Only Rice made more.

The first-team cornerbacks on the 2000s All-Decade Team were Champ Bailey and Charles Woodson. Bailey said, "The guy that gave me the most problems was Marvin Harrison. ... He was quick, fast and could do it all." Woodson also cited Harrison as the receiver who gave him the most trouble: "Marvin Harrison was the best receiver I played against. ... He was fast and quick and ran great routes. ... I did understand that it was going to be one of those days when I was playing him. Really, he was the only guy I thought of like that."

Manning confirmed, "Nobody could get open like Marvin. Cornerbacks used to tell me that he was the most difficult wide receiver to cover because all of his routes looked the same at the beginning of the route." Jaguars executive James Harris once told Tony Dungy, “We know the ball is going to Marvin Harrison. We know he’s the one guy we have to stop. And not only does he get open, he gets wide open.” Patriots coach Bill Belichick described Harrison as a player without weaknesses: "He could do it all . . . short, long, run after the catch, great route runner, outside the numbers — we always doubled him." Belichick elaborated, "There were a lot of guys you had to worry about on that team . . . but in the end where it usually went to was Harrison."

Harrison was quiet and humble, a distinct contrast with the me-first diva image that defined his generation of WRs. He was a respected teammate who never caused drama in the locker room or on the practice field. He is also the Pro Football Hall of Fame member second most likely to have committed murder.

Shannon Sharpe
Denver Broncos, 1990-99, 2002-03; Baltimore Ravens, 2000-01
815 receptions, 10,060 yards, 12.3 avg, 494 first downs, 62 TD
10,000 yards in: 2003, Week 15
Hall of Fame, 4 consensus All-Pro, 5 AP All-Pro, 8 Pro Bowls, 1990s All-Decade Team

On December 6, 2003, there were 18 players with 10,000 career receiving yards. On December 14, there were 21. Jimmy Smith reached the milestone in Week 14, then Marvin Harrison and Shannon Sharpe both topped 10k in Week 15. Prior to the 2003 season, there had never been a year in which more than two players surpassed 10,000 receiving yards. Then, in '03, four players reached the mark — including, for the first time ever, a tight end.

At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, Sharpe was small for his position, and not a very good blocker. However, he was such an effective receiver that Sharpe jump-started the trend of receiving-only TEs: teams realized that their TEs didn't need to be great blockers if they could contribute like Sharpe in the passing game. Sharpe was a poor blocker for his era, but he was better than many TEs today. He cared about blocking, and he was Denver's primary tight end when Terrell Davis was setting records. Sharpe was a starter for three Super Bowl champions.

A 7th-round draft pick out of Savannah State, Sharpe began his career on special teams. As a rookie, he made more tackles (16) than receptions (7). He went on to set multiple TE receiving records. Teammate Rod Smith, who joined the 10,000-yard Club in 2005, called Sharpe "the most disciplined person I've ever met." Smith, who was undrafted, credits Sharpe with his own development. "I literally mimicked Shannon Sharpe in order to make myself into the pro football player that I was."

Sharpe was a great athlete. Pro Bowl teammate Mark Schlereth called him "an absolute freak of nature." Sharpe's incredible fitness led Schlereth to wonder, "I don't know . . . if you can be negative body fat." Sharpe was fast for his size — he may be the only elite tight end in history for whom speed was his primary calling card. In the 2000 AFC Championship Game, Sharpe set a postseason record with a 97-yard TD reception, including 90 yards after the catch. He was strong for his size, dedicated in the weight room, and had good hands.

Shannon Sharpe NFL Films video (4:08)

Today, Sharpe is known not for his hands or his foot speed, but primarily for his mouth. He was a chatterbox, a trash talker, a comedian. Teammates liked him; he decompressed pressure situations, and teams need that. He was a hard worker, so he never became a joke, and the Broncos had enough leadership that his thirst for the spotlight never got in the way of winning. This is probably impossible to quantify, but I believe that Sharpe's personality was an asset for his teams. In his post-playing career as a media personality, I despise Shannon Sharpe. He eschews nuance, he makes no effort to see other people's perspectives, and he cares more about the attention than the truth. But he was a great ballplayer.

Terrell Owens
San Francisco 49ers, 1996-2003; Philadelphia Eagles, 2004-05; Dallas Cowboys, 2006-08; Buffalo Bills, 2009; Cincinnati Bengals, 2010
1,078 receptions, 15,934 yards, 14.8 avg, 742 first downs, 153 TD
10,000 yards in: 2005, Week 2
Hall of Fame, 3 consensus All-Pro, 5 AP All-Pro, 6 Pro Bowls, 2000s All-Decade Team