Best Single Season Since The Merger (WR)

As some of you may recall, I started this project last summer, when I attempted to uncover the single greatest season for a running back. This time around I’m going to tackle the wide receivers (figuratively, of course, as I doubt I’m physically capable of actually tackling any of the individuals that will be mentioned in this post). I haven’t ran the numbers yet, but my money is on one of Jerry Rice’s seasons, because he’s Jerry Rice, and I don’t really need a reason other than that. Who knows though, maybe I’ll be surprised.

The first thing I did was set some minimum standards:

• I only looked at 1970 or later, because the NFL/AFL merger happened that year and it served as a nice cut-off.
• The receiver had to play in at least 10 games, with a couple of exceptions made for Dwight Clark and Wes Chandler in the 1982 season, because of the lockout that year.
• The receiver had to have a minimum of 2.75 receptions per game. This sounds like a really low number, but if I had put it higher, 1982 would have been representing the seasons from the longest ago. That’s 12 years of football that would have been excluded. I think this number actually just illustrates how much the game has evolved since the 1970’s, so I’m okay with it being that low.
• For those that are curious, I will include a list of the excluded receivers at the end of this post, that would have otherwise been considered.