The top 10 receivers of all time by yards per catch
Minimum 200 catches, regular season, through 2025. The order is arithmetic. What it means is the argument.
This is a let's-have-an-argument list, with a twist: the order isn't ours. It's career receiving yards divided by career catches, regular season only, with NFL and AFL statistics counted and All-America Football Conference numbers left out, minimum 200 receptions, through the end of the 2025 season. The minimum matters. Warren Wells of the Raiders averaged 23.1 yards a catch on 158 receptions and doesn't qualify. The argument is about what the number measures: a true deep threat, an era that threw less, or a receiver who was never asked to catch the short ones. The best average by anyone since 2000 is 17.9. If you think this is the wrong way to rank receivers, say so.
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1
Homer Jones
22.3 yards per catch: 224 catches, 4,986 yards; Giants and Browns, 1964-70
Homer Jones averaged 22.3 yards a catch over seven seasons, and nobody with at least 200 receptions has come within a yard of him. The gap between him and second place, 1.4 yards, is bigger than the gap between second and ninth. In 1967 he caught 49 passes for 1,209 yards, 24.7 a catch, and led the NFL with 13 touchdown receptions. He had a 98-yard catch the year before. He's also credited with inventing the touchdown spike, in 1965. The counterargument is volume. His 224 catches are the fewest in the top 10, and he isn't in the Hall of Fame, so this is a measure of how far a receiver went each time, not how often he got the ball. That's the argument this list is built to have.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Wikipedia: Homer Jones · Giants.com · Pro Football Reference.
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2
Buddy Dial
20.8 yards per catch: 261 catches, 5,436 yards; Steelers and Cowboys, 1959-66
Buddy Dial is second on this list and outside the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which says a lot about how the number and the reputation don't always line up. He averaged 20.8 yards on 261 catches for Pittsburgh and Dallas from 1959 to 1966. His best year was 1963 with the Steelers: 60 catches for 1,295 yards. He made two Pro Bowls, and the Steelers put him in their Hall of Honor in 2018. The counterargument is the one that follows most of this list, a short career and a modest catch total. Twenty yards a catch across eight seasons is still twenty yards a catch.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Pro Football Reference · Steelers.com · Wikipedia: Buddy Dial.
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3
Harlon Hill
20.2 yards per catch: 233 catches, 4,717 yards; Bears, Steelers and Lions, 1954-62
Harlon Hill came into the league in 1954 and caught 45 passes for 1,124 yards and 12 touchdowns as a Bears rookie. In 1955, only his second season, the NEA named him the league's most valuable player. His career average is 20.2 yards on 233 catches, nearly all of it in Chicago. The case is how fast he got there: 1,124 yards as a rookie, at 25 yards a catch. The counterargument is the catch total. His 233 are the second-fewest in the top 10, and he had none after 1962. A great start and a short career still add up to a great average.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Wikipedia: Harlon Hill · Pro Football Reference.
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4
Flipper Anderson
20.1 yards per catch: 267 catches, 5,357 yards; Rams, Colts, Washington and Broncos, 1988-97
One of two receivers in the top 10 who played after 1977, and the holder of the NFL record for receiving yards in a game: 336 against New Orleans on Nov. 26, 1989, in overtime. That season he caught 44 passes for 1,146 yards, 26 yards a catch. Over his career with the Rams, Colts, Washington and Denver he averaged 20.06 yards on 267 catches, which puts him ahead of Paul Warfield by five thousandths of a yard. The counterargument is that a tie-breaker that thin means nothing, and Warfield did it over 160 more catches. That's the best case on the list for a higher minimum, and it's worth making.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Wikipedia: Flipper Anderson · Wikipedia: NFL records · Fox Sports · StatMuse: Anderson.
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5
Paul Warfield
20.1 yards per catch: 427 catches, 8,565 yards; Browns and Dolphins, 1964-77
The best average in NFL history among receivers with at least 300 catches, and the most decorated player in the top 10. Paul Warfield caught 427 passes for 8,565 yards and 85 touchdowns for Cleveland and Miami, 20.06 a catch, and missed fourth place by five thousandths of a yard. He won an NFL title with the Browns in 1964, went to eight Pro Bowls, was part of Miami's unbeaten 1972 team and went into the Hall of Fame in 1983. He and Bob Hayes are the only Hall of Famers in the top 10. The case for him is that he held the average over far more catches than anyone above him. The counterargument is that he ranks fifth on a list where he's plainly the most accomplished name, which says the number isn't the whole story. It isn't. That's why it's worth arguing about.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Pro Football Hall of Fame · Wikipedia: Paul Warfield.
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6
Bob Hayes
20.0 yards per catch: 371 catches, 7,414 yards; Cowboys and 49ers, 1965-75
Bob Hayes won two Olympic gold medals in 1964, then led the NFL in touchdown catches in each of his first two seasons with Dallas, 12 in 1965 and 13 in 1966. He averaged 20.0 yards on 371 catches over 11 seasons with the Cowboys and 49ers, won Super Bowl VI and went into the Hall of Fame in 2009. The case for Hayes is speed that lasted: close to 20 yards a catch across more than 350 receptions. The counterargument is in the decimals. His average is 19.98, rounded up, and a fraction behind both Warfield and Anderson. On a list decided by arithmetic, that's enough to put a Hall of Famer sixth.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Pro Football Reference · Pro Football Hall of Fame · Wikipedia: Bob Hayes.
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7
Willie Gault
19.9 yards per catch: 333 catches, 6,635 yards; Bears and Raiders, 1983-93
Willie Gault played for one of the teams on this site's list of the greatest seasons: he was a receiver on the 1985 Bears and won Super Bowl XX. Over 11 seasons with Chicago and the Raiders he averaged 19.9 yards on 333 catches, and he and Flipper Anderson are the only receivers in the top 10 who played in the 1990s. The case is deep speed sustained over more than a decade. The counterargument is volume: 333 catches over 11 seasons is about 30 a year, which is what a pure deep threat's career looks like. He was dangerous every time he caught it. He just didn't catch it often.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Wikipedia: Willie Gault · Pro Football Reference.
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8
Jimmy Orr
19.8 yards per catch: 400 catches, 7,914 yards; Steelers and Colts, 1958-70
Jimmy Orr is best remembered for a catch he never got to make. In Super Bowl III he stood wide open, waving his arms, on a flea-flicker, and Earl Morrall never saw him. The Colts lost to the Jets. His career says more than that moment. He was the 1958 Rookie of the Year with Pittsburgh and finished with 7,914 yards on 400 catches for the Steelers and Colts, 19.8 a catch, and he won Super Bowl V with Baltimore two years after the flea-flicker. The counterargument is volume again: 400 catches over 13 seasons is about 31 a year. The case is that he held a near-20 average for 13 years.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · NFL.com · Wikipedia: Jimmy Orr · Pro Football Reference.
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9
Ray Renfro
19.6 yards per catch: 281 catches, 5,508 yards; Browns, 1952-63
Ray Renfro spent his whole career in Cleveland, from 1952 to 1963, and averaged 19.6 yards on 281 catches. He won NFL titles with the Browns in 1954 and 1955 and made three Pro Bowls. The case is consistency: 12 seasons, one team, two titles and nearly 20 yards every time he caught it. The counterargument is era. Renfro played in a league that threw far less than today's, and an average built in the 1950s isn't built the same way as one from the 2020s. That's true of half this list, and it's the main reason a stat this simple is still worth arguing about.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Wikipedia: Ray Renfro · Pro Football Reference.
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10
Hugh "Bones" Taylor
19.2 yards per catch: 272 catches, 5,233 yards; Washington, 1947-54
The closest call on the list. Hugh Taylor averaged 19.239 yards a catch for Washington from 1947 to 1954, and Stanley Morgan averaged 19.239 for New England and Indianapolis from 1977 to 1990. Taylor is ahead by two ten-thousandths of a yard, and one more yard for Morgan would flip it. Taylor gets the spot on the arithmetic: 272 catches, 5,233 yards and a 1952 season in which he caught 41 passes for 961 yards and 12 touchdowns. The counterargument is Morgan himself, who did it over 557 catches, more than twice as many. If you're going to argue about one spot, argue about this one.
Sources: FootballDB career leaders · StatMuse career leaders · Wikipedia: Hugh Taylor · Pro Football Reference · Wikipedia: Stanley Morgan.
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