Top Seasons By Rams Receivers

 By John Turney 

It didn't matter where the Rams were located. Cleveland? St. Louis? L.A.? It didn't matter. They always seemed to have some of the league's best running backs, with Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, Steven Jackson, Todd Gurley, Lawrence McCutcheon and Dick Bass among them.

But they had an equally accomplished cast of receivers, too, and they starred on offenses that were so productive they had their own nicknames ... like the "Point a Minute" and "Greatest Show on Turf." But who among those receivers had the best single seasons?

You're about to find out.

Not the best careers mind you. This is not an all-time Rams' team. It's a career-year team, taking the best season by all receivers who wore Rams' jerseys -- whether they played a couple of years or their entire careers with the franchise -- and ranking the top 20.

Here's how they stack up.

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Eddie Kennison

20. Eddie Kennison, 1996—In the 1996 NFL draft, the St. Louis Rams passed on Syracuse wide receiver Marvin Harrison and selected Kennison, a 4.4 speedster out of LSU. The Rams' brain trust thought Harrison was too much the same "type" of receiver as Isaac Bruce.

And that was a bad thing ... how?

Nevertheless, Kennison did have a good rookie season, with 54 receptions, 924 receiving yards (17.1 avg.) and nine touchdown receptions. He also gets bonus points for being an excellent punt returner, taking two to the house.

He was All-Rookie, fourth in the NFL Offensive Rookie-of-the Year voting and pulled down two NFC Player of the Week awards -- one for special teams (Week 11) and one for offense in Week 16 when he caught five passes for 226 yards and three touchdowns.

Kennison never panned out as a Ram but had some decent seasons in Kansas City under Dick Vermeil.

Bet they wished they'd grabbed Harrison. 

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Ron Jessie

19. Ron Jessie, 1976—More of an eye-test guy than many of those on this list. Yes, in 1976 he was voted to his only Pro Bowl, but it wasn't the quantity of his 34 catches; it was the quality -- many of which were circus grabs. 

He averaged 22.9 (third in the NFL) yards a catch and, as the receiver playing opposite Harold Jackson on the NFC's top-scoring offense, posed a challenge for defenses.

His top game was in the season's fourth game, in Miami, and Jessie caught seven passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-28 victory over the Dolphins. 

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Bernie Casey

18. Bernie Casey, 1967—The Rams turned the corner in 1966 after a string of consecutive losing seasons. Then, in 1967 they made a charge, winning the NFL Coastal Divison and reaching the playoffs game for the first time since 1955.

Casey was a part of that.

George Allen acquired Casey in the offseason from the Falcons for running back Tom Moore (Casey has been shipped to Atlanta as part of a multi-player trade that landed quarterback Steve Spurrier) and the future Hollywood actor responded with 53 catches for 871 and eight touchdowns. He also received the only Pro Bowl invite of his career.

Casey caught a touchdown pass in late-season games vs. the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts -- victories that sealed the division title -- and was the only Rams' player to score in their 28-7 loss to Green Bay in the opening round of the playoffs.

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Jim Phillips

17. Jim "Red" Phillips, 1961—Phillips was a first-team All-Pro in his career year and a Pro Bowler who became the fourth receiver in Rams' history to lead the NFL in receptions. He had 78, and his 1,092 receiving yards were third-most in the NFL.

The Rams were bad (4-10), but "Red" was good.

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Tommy McDonald

16. Tommy McDonald, 1965—The Hall-of-Famer became the Rams' flanker after spending 1964 in Dallas and was so good that he finished second in voting for NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

The effusive and maskless McDonald caught 67 passes for 1,036 and nine touchdowns. He was third in the NFL in receiving yardage and sixth in touchdown catches. It was his last great season and he was rewarded with his final Pro Bowl.

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Bucky Pope

15. Bucky Pope, 1964—The "Catawba Claw" as he was known (one of Steve Sabol's favorite nicknames) wasn't particularly fast, but he did have sneaky speed. And that, coupled with a basketball player's height (he was 6-foot-5), allowed him to go deep on NFL defensive backs.

Though he caught only 25 passes for the season, 10 went for touchdowns -- enough to tie for the NFL lead. Even more noteworthy, however, with 25 receptions he averaged 31.4 yards. 

Thirty-one point four. 

He didn't have enough catches to qualify for the league lead (the minimum was 28), but, if you look at all NFL players with 25 or more receptions in a season, his yards-per-catch figure is tops in NFL

 history.

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Robert Woods

14. Robert Woods, 2018—"Bobby Trees" had good numbers (86-1,219-14.2-6), but that's not what made him a great player; it was how vital he was to Sean McVay's offense with his blocking and motion. 

His skill set allowed the Rams to say in "11 personnel" (three wide receivers) a majority of the time, though they could still run effectively because of how well receivers could block.

Woods was the best at that.

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Jack Snow

13. Jack Snow, 1967—This was a difficult decision. Snow was a consistent player who didn't put up huge numbers but was always a solid split end.

His top year statistically was 1970 when he caught 51 passes for 859 yards and seven touchdowns. I know, that doesn't sound like much, but in a 17-game season it prorates to over 1,000 yards.

But 1970 is not the pick. I'm going with 1967, his Pro Bowl year. 

And not because of the Pro Bowl (which was his only one) but because of his league-leading 26.3 yards per catch. Plus, 1967 was the season of his highlight-reel snag when he grabbed the back half of the ball in Baltimore.

It wasn't the only one that year. He had another one like it in Detroit.

Snow was Roman Gabriel's deep threat in 1967, delivering on his claim never to have been caught from behind.

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Flipper Anderson

12. Flipper Anderson, 1989—While we are on a yards-per-catch roll, there's Flipper's 1989 season when he averaged a league-leading 26.0 yards on 44 receptions.

Yes, a lot of his 1,146 receiving yards were built on his record-setting 336 yards receiving vs. New Orleans. But if you throw out that game, he still averaged 27.9 yards a catch.

Flipper could get deep. He led the NFL in yards per catch the next year and finished his career with a 20.1-yard average.

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Del Shofner

11. Del Shofner, 1958—After spending a year as a defensive back, Shofner was moved to receiver and ended up leading the NFL with 1,097 receiving yards. He did it on 51 catches and averaged 21.9 yards per catch (Sensing a yards-per-catch theme among here? The Rams have had some of the best deep-receiving seasons on the books).

The tall, slender Shofner was also a consensus All-Pro and Pro Bowler -- the first of five such seasons in his career before leg injuries slowed him in the mid-1960s.

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Puka Nacua

10. Puka Nacua, 2023. The rookie out of BYU worked his way into the Top Ten last season with 105 catches and 1,486 yards receiving. At first, he filled in for an injured Cooper Kupp. But after Kupp returned, the rookie was still a focus of the Rams' passing game.

He broke a litany of long-standing records, was named a second-team All-Pro and was voted to the Pro Bowl. 

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Tom Fears

9. Tom Fears, 1950—The Hall-of-Fame end set an NFL single-season record for receptions with 84, breaking one he set the previous season. In the season final against the Packers Fears set the NFL record for receptions in a game with 18 -- a record that stood until 2000 when Terrell Owens broke it.

Along with his receptions, Fears' 1,116 receiving yards also led the NFL. Accordingly, he was a consensus All-Pro and was also named to the Pro Bowl, which was reinstated after a seven-year absence.

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Henry Ellard

8. Henry Ellard, 1988—Ellard had been an All-Pro as a punt returner in 1984, but in this, his career year of 1988, he led the league in receiving yards (1,414) and was named an All-Pro. He also produced a career-high 86 receptions and 10 receiving touchdowns.

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Bob Boyd

7. Bob Boyd, 1954—He's not a familiar name, but Bob Boyd deserves to be seventh on this list.

An NCAA sprint champion and part of the 1954 Rams' three-receiver offense, he had the best season of the three -- which is noteworthy considering the other two were Hall-of-Famers.

Boyd is another Ram who led the NFL in receiving yards (did I say they could throw the rock?) and his 22.9 yards per catch were second in the NFL. All told, he had 53 catches for 1,212 yards and six touchdowns. And he did it in a 12-game season.

Boyd was rewarded as a consensus All-Pro and went to the only Pro Bowl of his career.

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Torry Holt

6. Torry Holt, 2003—A league-leading 117 receptions, career-high 1,696 yards and 12 TDs made Holt a consensus All-Pro and Pro Bowler. However, 2003 was not an automatic choice. 

I looked hard at 2000. 

That year he averaged a league-best 19.9 yards per catch on 82 receptions and put up 1,635 receiving yards. Trust me, there aren't many seasons where someone averages almost 20 yards on that many receptions. In fact, among pro players with 80 or more catches in a single season, only one player averaged more yards per reception -- Charley Hennigan of the 1961 Houston Oilers.

Ultimately, though, I went with 2003 when he was the NFL Alumni Wide Receiver of the Year.

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Harold Jackson

5. Harold Jackson, 1973—The diminutive Jackson (5-foot-9, 175 pounds) didn't post monster numbers. He couldn't. That's because his coach, "Ground" Chuck Knox, liked to pound the ball -- with the Rams leading the NFL in rushing attempts and yards.

However, when they did throw, Harold Jackson was the target.

Though he didn't have prodigious numbers for the season, he did in Week Five against the Dallas Cowboys when he was the NFL Offensive Player of the Week. On that October afternoon, he caught seven passes for 238 yards and four TDs. 

That game ended Charlie Waters' career as a cornerback. Waters was assigned to Jackson most of the day and couldn't keep up with him. So he was moved back to his natural position of safety.

In 1973, Jackson was a consensus All-Pro, Pro Bowler and even won some votes for AP Offensive Player of the Year. Granted, he only caught 40 passes, but 13 went for touchdowns and he averaged 21.9 yards per catch.

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Isaac Bruce

4. Isaac Bruce, 1995—Ike got almost no "alls" in 1995 -- his highest honor was second-team All-NFC -- but he deserved better. He put up record-breaking numbers that season, setting Rams' marks for receptions (119) and yards (1,781), with 13 of his catches going for TDs.

Bruce was the NFC Offensive Player in Week 7, but his best game was the season finale when he caught 15 passes for 210 yards.

He had other years considered as career seasons, especially 1999 and 2000, but 1995 -- when he played without an elite receiver like Torry Holt and didn't have an MVP-caliber quarterback like Kurt Warner -- is my pick.

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Jim Benton

3. Jim Benton, 1945—Benton was rookie MVP Bob Waterfield's main target when the Cleveland Rams won the NFL title in 1945. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound two-way end caught 45 passes including eight for touchdowns, for a league-leading 1,067 yards and a whopping average of 23.7 yards a catch. 

In a November game in Detroit, Benton set the NFL record for yards receiving in a game with 303 on ten catches one being a touchdown in a 28-21 win over the Lions.

Then he caught nine more balls for 125 yards and a touchdown in the championship game as Cleveland defeated Washington 15-14.

There was no Pro Bowl in that era, but Benton was a consensus first-team All-Pro and supplanted Don Hutson as the best end in the NFL ... at least for that year.

If you're wondering why someone with just over 1,000 yards receiving is third on my list, I look at it this way: If you prorate his performance over 17 games -- the current length of an NFL season -- Benton would have gone over 2,000 yards.

Enough said.

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Cooper Kupp

2. Cooper Kupp, 2021—Kupp was a receiving Triple Crown winner in his career year, leading the NFL in receiving, yards and touchdowns. But that's just the beginning. He was a consensus All-Pro, a Pro Bowler the NFL Offensive Player of the Year and twice the NFC Offensive Player of the Month.

Furthermore, he set franchise records with 145 catches and 1,947 receiving yards (each second-best in NFL history) and caught 16 touchdown passes. Not bad for someone who ran a 4.62 at the 2017 NFL scouting combine. 

The grandson of 1969 Pro Bowl guard Jake Kupp, Cooper kept it up in the postseason, as well, with 33 catches for 478 yards and six touchdowns. He was also named the Super Bowl LVI MVP after catching the game-winning pass in a 23-20 win over the Bengals.

It was an amazing year-long performance, but it was not the best in Rams' history. There's one slightly better.

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Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch

1. Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch—"Crazylegs" may have had the best year of any receiver ever in 1951. In a 12-game season, he hauled in 66 passes for 1,495 yards (a 22.7 average) and 17 touchdowns, including a long of 91 yards.

All of those marks led the league, and, yes, you read that right

There have been receivers to achieve a receiving Triple Crown (see Cooper Kupp, above), but what about one who produced a quadruple crown? Add in yards per catch, and Hirsch did it. Or maybe a quintuple crown? Throw in the longest reception of the year, and Hirsch did that, too.

Ten of Hirsch's receptions were for over 40 yards, and six were for 70 yards or more. What's more, only two of his 17 touchdowns were fewer than 19 yards. Plus, 17 TDs tied the NFL mark held by Hall-of-Fame legend Don Hutson, with Hirsch averaging 48.1 yards on each.

Hutson averaged roughly half of that. 

Still not convinced? 

Calculate what his season totals would have been in a 17-game season: 94 receptions, 2,118 yards (still the same 22.7 YPC) and 24 touchdown receptions.

Those are scary numbers.

If you don't like that -- prorating numbers for games he did not play -- fair enough. Then take Cooper Kupp's season and convert it to the 12-game season Hirsch played in 1951. Then his 2021 totals would translate to 102 receptions, 1,374 yards and 11 touchdowns.

A very good season, but nothing like the huge year he had in 17 games.

When evaluating great seasons, I believe that you must consider the era and length of the year for a fair comparison. So I'm not suggesting that Hirsch could do now what he did then. But as someone who likes history, the point is to compare the rarity and greatness of seasons in particular eras -- as well as how they withstand the test of time.

And when you do, I think you'll agree that Crazylegs had the best-ever season by a Rams' receiver -- one that rivals the top seasons of Don Hutson, Jerry Rice or anyone else you care to name.

In 1951, Crazylegs Hirsch put up crazy numbers.