When I started doing these “Top 5” articles the Steelers hadn’t announced their creation of the Hall of Honor. Now that they have, this feels like an even more interesting intellectual exercise. We’ve discussed the quarterbacks and the linebackers thus far. Now, I’m turning my attention to the receivers, a group that isn’t nearly as deep as linebacker, but certainly, has more depth than the quarterbacks.

This is not nearly as wide open a field as some of the others have been. In fact, it’s probably pretty easy to figure out the top four, but in what order? And who slides into the number five spot?

As in the other articles, I’m going to look at a set of statistics to help guide my picks, although there are intangibles that go along with those, especially when you consider what a player like Hines Ward contributed to the team. The same base criteria will limit the field somewhat – they have to have played five years with the Steelers, but in this instance, that’s not going to really limit the field. I’m also limiting this to just wide receivers. Tight Ends, Halfbacks and anyone else who may have caught a pass in their careers don’t need to apply.

The statistics I’m going to examine for this group are as follows: Yards Per Game, Total Receiving Yards, Total Receptions, Yards Per Reception, Total TDs and Percentage of TDs per reception. The first three will show the overall productivity of the player, and the last two will show who were most effective at putting points on the board.

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In the Conversation

Let’s just start the conversation by saying that Hines Ward, John Stallworth, Lynn Swann and Antonio Brown are in the conversation – no question. After that, the list starts to get pretty long for guys who are looking to make their case for the number 5 spot. Mike Wallace, Buddy Dial, Louis Lipps, Yancey Thigpen, Ron Shanklin, Roy Jefferson, Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress all can make arguments that they should be “in the conversation”. That’s 12 guys, but it’s hard to knock any of them out of the running right away.

As I said above, it’s not hard to agree that the top 4 guys (in no particular order) are Hines, AB, Swannie, and Stallworth. The only argument there is where each of them stands. The real conversation is of the 7 other guys in the conversation, who takes the number 5 slot.

Buddy Dial is going to have a bit of handicap, because old as I may be, I wasn’t around to watch Buddy Dial play, so the only real evidence I have are a few clips that I can find and the stats. For everyone else on this list, I was fortunate enough to see the vast majority of their careers (although to be fair, I don’t remember all that much of Roy Jefferson and Ron Shanklin, but I was watching).

Total Receiving Yards

Total yards for a career (only Steelers years included) have Hines Ward well out in front of both John Stallworth and Antonio Brown. However, Brown sits only 3,706 yards behind Ward, and at only 29 years of age, and with his legendary work ethic, it’s safe to assume that Brown will have a better than good opportunity to surpass Ward as the Steelers career leader in receiving yards.

In fact, over the past 4 season, Brown has averaged 1578.75 yards per season. If he keeps up that pace he will surpass Ward sometime during the 2019 season. Both Ward and Stallworth played 14 seasons with the Steelers, and Swann played 9, while Brown so far has only played 7. Louis Lipps beats out Swann in total yards by just over 600 yards, and in 8 fewer games (Swann played 116, Lipps only 108).

Buddy Dial played in an era where passing was usually a secondary concern, but he also played just 5 seasons in Pittsburgh and still managed to beat out Mike Wallace, Santonio Holmes, Yancey Thigpen, Roy Jefferson and Plaxico Burress. Not too shabby considering the era he played in (and with the quarterbacks he played with).

Total Receptions

Hines Ward ended his Steelers career with exactly 1000 receptions. Only 13 other players have ever surpassed the 1,000 reception mark, and 2 of them (Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten) were tight ends.

Antonio Brown sits a mere 368 receptions behind Hines and in half the number of seasons. It’s highly likely that AB could break this record in 2019 along with total career receiving yards. It’s interesting to note that Louis Lipps again beats out Lynn Swann for fourth on the list. Lipps played one less season than Swann did, but of course, they played in dramatically different eras. The first few years of Swann’s career were at a time when the Steelers had a “run first” mentality. Only 45 catches separate the bottom group (Plaxico had 264 and Buddy Dial 219).

Yards Per Game

This chart clearly shows why AB may shatter every Steelers receiving record that exists. For the first time, the four “definite” guys are not all in the top 5, in fact, Antonio Brown is the only member who is in the top 5 receivers in yards per game. Brown dominates, having averaged 82.94 yards per game over his 7 years in the league. Buddy Dial comes in second, averaging 71.58 yards per game, and the top 5 is rounded out by Mike Wallace (64.16), Santonio Holmes (63.92) and Roy Jefferson (56.48).

Lynn Swann (47.09) and John Stallworth (52.87) both suffer for having played several years in run heavy offenses, and Hines Ward also suffers because of his overall longevity and the fact he was little used in his first 3 seasons, and in his last season.

Yards Per Reception

Do you want to know who the “home run hitters” were? This is the stat for you: yards per reception.

And the runaway winner is… Buddy Dial!

Dial was a real deep threat, averaging over 21 yards per catch for his career with the Steelers (21.6 officially). Roy Jefferson, Ron Shanklin, Mike Wallace and Louis Lipps round out the top 5.

Interesting to note that none of the guys who we just naturally assume are in the top 4 are represented here, and in fact, Antonio Brown and Hines Ward don’t even crack the top 11! (Hines was twelfth and AB was thirteenth.)

Clearly, Dial and the rest were used primarily as deep threats. Mike Wallace had the longest reception of anyone in the group (95 yards) followed by Lipps (89) and Dial (88). Were all of these guys, as Coach Tomlin famously described Mike Wallace, “one-trick ponies”? Probably not, but certainly their primary use was to stretch the field.

Touchdowns

Things seem to come back into focus here, as the top four are all represented. Hines Ward has more receiving touchdowns than anyone else, and by a considerable margin (85 to John Stallworth’s 63). Lynn Swann and Antonio Brown come in third and fourth followed by Buddy Dial.

Antonio Brown will certainly pass Lynn Swann on this list in the upcoming season since he only trails Swann by a single TD (51 to 50). For all the catches and yards that AB puts up, he has only averaged about 7.3 TDs per year. Considering he’s currently 35 behind Hines Ward, AB will have to put up scary numbers to catch Ward anytime soon. Brown is under contract for the next 5 years (although the Steelers do have a potential out in 2020 if they choose to take it). If he wants to catch Swann in those 5 years (which would bring his total to 12) he would need to simply maintain his current TD/season average. However, that may be harder to manage as age will eventually catch up to AB unless he’s a baby James Harrison. This record may be the most difficult for Brown to break.

The interesting thing here is that Buddy Dial, who had the fewest receptions over his career of anyone on this list still comes in fifth in total career TDs. Sure appears that Dial made the plays when they would pay off the most. Which leads directly into the last stat.

Percentage of Touchdowns per Reception

Considering what we just discussed, it’s no surprise at all that Buddy Dial leads the team in percentage of TDs per reception. Dial scored a touchdown on over 19% of his receptions. That means almost 1-in-5 of his catches went for six points. That’s big time stuff.

Lynn Swann comes in second, 4 percentage points behind dial (15.18), and the top 5 is rounded out by Roy Jefferson, Ron Shanklin, and Mike Wallace. John Stallworth comes in sixth overall, and Hines Ward barely makes the chart, coming in at eleventh. Not surprisingly, Antonio Brown doesn’t even crack the top 11 in Steelers history (He barely missed it, coming in twelfth with 7.91 percent).

You can make a case that these numbers are skewed to a certain extent to favor the deep threat guys. Guys who make their living on deep passes are going to probably score on a higher percentage of those passes than do guys who make their living on shorter routes. Fair enough, but it is interesting to see how consistent Buddy Dial has been considering his limited years and receptions.

Conclusion

My original assumption that the top four were going to be Antonio Brown, Hines Ward, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth feels correct. I can’t see anyone else making a case to be in the top four. What does surprise me a little bit is that after examining this, number 5 feels pretty clear as well.
There are some intangibles to take into consideration. John Stallworth played many years without Terry Bradshaw at quarterback, and he was still able to perform at a high level. Hell, in 1984 he had maybe his best year as a pro (1395 yards, 82 receptions, and 11 TDs) and Mark Malone was his quarterback. Swann had the benefit of a Hall of Fame QB for his entire career, as has AB (so far anyway). Hines Ward played with a variety of different quarterbacks and performed consistently throughout his career.

Top that off with the fact that Ward was a blocker unlike any other in Steelers history. Just ask Keith Rivers!

Buddy Dial played in a much different era, and both Stallworth and Swann began their careers during a time when most of the league (and certainly the Steelers) was a run first league. Sadly, guys like Louis Lipps and Yancey Thigpen never really had consistent, quality quarterbacks to throw to them, and yet they put up solid numbers.

Ultimately, my top five receivers are as follows:

1. Antonio Brown
2. Hines Ward
3. John Stallworth
4. Lynn Swann
5. Buddy Dial

It’s really hard for me to put Ward ahead of Stallworth. John Stallworth was a far better receiver than I think he has ever gotten credit for being. Swann was the flashy guy, the circus catch guy, but Stallworth was much more consistent and reliable. I simply don’t believe Swann would have flourished with some of the QB’s Stallworth played with at the end of his career, but John did.

Still, Hines has to be number two. His tenacity and ability to block were unlike any receiver before or since.

And frankly, in three or four more years, nobody, and I mean nobody, will be questioning the idea that Antonio Brown is the best receiver in the history of the Steelers franchise. What’s so great about his story is that he made himself into this guy. He strove to be the best, and he has become so. He’s not the fastest guy and he is by no means the biggest – but nobody plays bigger than AB.

He may not end up with every Steelers receiving record (that TD record is going to be tough) but he’ll come close, and it won’t take him nearly as long to get there as it did some of the others.