Just by judging this headline, many will immediately dismiss this analysis piece. After all, the widely accepted “best receiver” in the league is Calvin Johnson. We’re not here today to take anything away from Johnson, who clearly forces opposing defenses to scheme with him heavily in mind. Furthermore, Megatron produces just as well as any receiver, and he’s been the reason why Matthew Stafford has as much as success as he does. Too often, Johnson “bailed out” Stafford by giving him a chance to connect on high-risk and low-probability passes. That truly makes Megatron the league’s best game-changing wide receiver in the NFL today.
Could Antonio Brown truly be the NFL’s best receiver? (photo rights to Jared Wickerham / Getty Images North America)
However, the most important factor about the league’s best players is that they consistently play at a very high level week in and week out. Greatness should be normal for them. In today’s feature, we’re not going to try to prove that it’s not the case for Johnson, because he does produce consistently at a high level. Instead, we’re going to prove how Brown also produces at a high level consistently. In fact, just by looking at the week-to-week numbers over the past year and a half for the Pittsburgh Steelers receiver, Brown’s consistency is one of the most remarkable feats in NFL history.
Note that we’ve talked about Brown’s recent run during the preseason, when we discussed the AFC North’s Five Factors. In that feature, we noted how Brown joined Pierre Garcon (in 2013) and Jimmy Smith (in 2001) as the only receivers to catch at least five passes in all 16 regular season games. Furthermore, Brown became the first receiver in the 16-game era to total at least 50 receiving yards in every team regular season game. We’re talking feats never achieved by Jerry Rice of all people, so Brown entered rarefied air. However, the wide receiver hasn’t stopped this streak.
In fact, Brown has no worse than five receptions and 84 yards in each game. (These numbers were tallied in Week 5 at Jacksonville.) The Central Michigan product has at least 90 receiving yards in every other game, as well as at least seven reception in six games. Actually, Brown is on pace for 120 receptions and 1704 yards, which would actually top last year’s totals (1110 receptions for 1499 yards) and break the regression projections we provided in the Five Factors feature.
Check out Brown’s week-by-week totals.
Table 1: Antonio Brown, Last 24 Games
| Year – Game | Targets | Receptions | Yards | Touchdowns | Year – Game | Targets | Receptions | Yards | Touchdowns | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-1 | 7 | 5 | 71 | 0 | 2013-13 | 10 | 5 | 138 | 1 | |
| 2013-2 | 9 | 6 | 57 | 0 | 2013-14 | 6 | 5 | 66 | 1 | |
| 2013-3 | 13 | 9 | 196 | 2 | 2013-15 | 13 | 6 | 105 | 0 | |
| 2013-4 | 13 | 12 | 88 | 0 | 2013-16 | 14 | 9 | 87 | 0 | |
| 2013-5 | 11 | 9 | 86 | 0 | 2014-1 | 6 | 5 | 116 | 1 | |
| 2013-6 | 7 | 6 | 50 | 0 | 2014-2 | 12 | 7 | 90 | 0 | |
| 2013-7 | 13 | 9 | 82 | 0 | 2014-3 | 10 | 10 | 90 | 2 | |
| 2013-8 | 9 | 5 | 71 | 1 | 2014-4 | 11 | 7 | 131 | 2 | |
| 2013-9 | 11 | 6 | 104 | 0 | 2014-5 | 12 | 5 | 84 | 0 | |
| 2013-10 | 13 | 7 | 147 | 2 | 2014-6 | 10 | 7 | 118 | 0 | |
| 2013-11 | 10 | 6 | 92 | 1 | 2014-7 | 13 | 9 | 90 | 0 | |
| 2013-12 | 8 | 5 | 59 | 0 | 2014-8 | 13 | 10 | 133 | 2 |
Note: The 2013 Steelers had a bye in Week 5.
The 24-game streak of 5+ receptions and 50+ yards is obviously an NFL record. In fact, he set the record when he got to 20 games. Laveraneus Coles held the previous record (19 games) when putting the streak together from his fourth game in 2002 to his sixth game in 2003. However, the question now is if he can keep up this streak of 10 consecutive games with 5+ receptions and 80+ yards. It looks like Brown will have the record all by himself if he can top those numbers Sunday night against Baltimore, surpassing David Boston. Note that Calvin Johnson achieved an eight-game streak twice, which shows how he can consistently produce at an elite level.
Michael Irvin owns the NFL record with 14 games with 5+ receptions and 80+ yards in a single season. It will be incredible to watch Brown try to break the record this season. It could be one of the most interesting storylines moving forward.
So where should we rank Antonio Brown among the league’s best receivers? Given his constant production, where having a strong game is a normal occurrence, Brown definitely fits on a short list. Honestly, we rank him second, only behind Calvin Johnson. That’s the lowest he should be. And, if he keeps producing at his level, maybe he truly deserves to move up to the top spot.