Randy Moss Retirement: Where Moss Ranks in NFL History

After a dismal 2010 season split between three teams, Randy Moss announced his retirement today. The former Vikings and Patriots star is just 34, but finishes his career among the all-time leaders in every major receiving category.

With the book closed on Moss’ lofty numbers, we can begin to ask the question of how he stacks up against the best receivers in the history of the game.

Despite his reputation for inconsistent effort and his prima donna public persona, it’s hard to argue with the remarkable productivity Moss showed in his 13 NFL seasons.

Herein, a look at Moss’ career numbers and where they place him among the other titans (and Titans) in NFL receiving history.

Receptions

Moss finished his career with 954 catches, good for eighth on the all-time list. His personal best came in 2003 with Minnesota, when he hauled in 111 passes from Daunte Culpepper and backup Gus Frerotte.

As eye-popping as Moss’ numbers with the Vikes were, we can only imagine what he might have done had he not started his career playing second fiddle to likely future Hall-of-Famer Cris Carter. Carter averaged 84 catches a year over the first four years of Moss’ career with Minnesota.

Carter finished his own brilliant career with 1,101 receptions, ranking him third all-time (he trails Marvin Harrison by just one catch). Moss, never accused of being a possession receiver, isn’t in any position to compete with one of the all-time greats in that department, but his lofty career standing still marks him as a historic talent.

Receiving Yards

Consistently among the most dangerous deep threats in the league, Moss gained 14,858 receiving yards over his 13 seasons, placing him fifth all-time. He notched a career-high 1,493 yards with the Patriots in 2007.

It’s hard to avoid linking Moss’ career with that of his contemporary, Terrell Owens. Owens is another big (6’3” to Moss’ 6’4”), fast wideout with an ego that outstrips even his prodigious stats.

Foremost among T.O.’s numbers is his total of 15,934 yards, second on the all-time list. The difference between Moss and Owens is about one season’s worth of production, though with Owens’ career not yet done, that gap is sure to widen by the time both players are competing again on Hall of Fame ballots.

Owens, who also has more receptions than Moss while equaling (to date) his TD total, is one of the few receivers in history who has clearly outperformed Moss from a statistical standpoint.

Receiving Touchdowns

No statistic highlights Randy Moss’ greatness like his ability to put points on the scoreboard. Moss’ 153 receiving TDs are tied (with Terrell Owens) for second in league history, and he led the league in that statistic five times (including a record 23 TDs in 2007).

Only the untouchable Jerry Rice caught more NFL touchdowns than Moss. Rice, who leads every career receiving category by unassailable margins, racked up 197 TD receptions in his career.

It’s worth noting that in this, his strongest statistical area, Moss is markedly better than most of his competition, having caught 23 more scores than third-place finisher Cris Carter.

Pro Bowl Selections

Moss’ relatively short career, combined with his two wasted seasons in Oakland, leaves him with a surprisingly unimpressive total of seven Pro Bowl selections. He was named first-team All-Pro four times in his 13 seasons.

Most of Moss’ rivals in the race for historic greatness at WR had their number of Pro Bowl berths boosted by appreciably longer careers. Moss’ fellow ex-Raider Tim Brown, for example, was named to nine Pro Bowls but also played 17 seasons to reach that total.

Moss isn’t far behind Brown (or most other elite receivers), but his relative lack of Pro Bowl berths may reflect the loss of respect that his sometimes-petulant attitude cost him among his fellow players.

For what it’s worth, fellow diva Terrell Owens has made only six Pro Bowls himself.

Super Bowl Victories

For all of Moss’ extraordinary numbers, the one many detractors will point to is zero.

That’s the number of Super Bowls won by Moss’ teams, lending fuel to the argument that his selfishness gave him impressive individual stats at the expense of his teams’ success.

Remarkably, Moss’ lack of championship credentials is the rule rather than the exception among dominant receivers. The league’s top 10 players all-time in receptions have a total of eight Super Bowl rings among them, and three of those belong to Jerry Rice.

Marvin Harrison provides a fairly typical example. Despite being among the league’s top wideouts on a consistent playoff team, Harrison won just one Super Bowl in his 13-year career.

Hall of Fame Credentials

Statistically, the existing group of Hall of Fame receivers has been all but erased from the record books. Aside from Jerry Rice, only three current Hall of Famers rank in the top 10 in receiving yards (James Lofton) or TDs (Steve Largent and Don Hutson) and none in receptions.

That being the case, it almost goes without saying that Moss’ stats are worthy of a place in Canton. He’s in the top 10 in all three of those categories and in the top five in yards and TDs, the areas that reflect his strengths as a deep threat and red-zone target.

That said, Moss isn’t going to just waltz into a Hall of Fame selection. Recent classes have inducted just one receiver a year, and with luminaries like Cris Carter and Tim Brown still waiting for their names to be called, Moss will likely have to wait his turn to join Rice in Canton.

He isn’t going to be helped by the subjective aspect of the voting, either. For all his productivity, Moss’ image is that of a selfish, divisive player who wouldn’t do the dirty work to help his teams win, and that reputation is going to make it tough for Hall of Fame voters to include him if team players like Carter or Isaac Bruce are left out.

For what he did on the field, Moss deserves a spot in Canton. For what he did off it, he deserves to wait a few years before he gets there.