Julio Jones is the best WR to ever step on an NFL field

There is no doubt that Julio Jones is on the path to the hall of fame, however, what no one has said yet is that Julio is the greatest wide receiver to ever play the game.

Calling Julio Jones the greatest wide receiver to ever the game may seem like a bold statement, but it does not make it any less factual. Most people, including everyone over the age of 35, would say that Jerry Rice is the greatest wide receiver to ever play the game. He is the statistical leader in the clubhouse when it comes to nearly every category that a wide receiver is judged on.

However, Julio is on track to break Jerry Rice’s career receiving yards and yards from the line of scrimmage. Julio is already the all-time NFL leader in receiving yards per game and I would not expect that to change as both he and Matt Ryan are in the middle of their prime.

The one area that Julio will never catch Jerry Rice or anyone else in the top 10 is in receiving touchdowns. However, you cannot blame Julio for that. Unlike the others in the top 10, Julio has always had other high level options around him and a quarterback that has distributed the ball better than most quarterbacks.

Think about that. Julio has played with Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez. Tony is arguably the greatest tight end of all time and one of the best red zone pass catchers ever and Roddy White was a top six wide receiver during his decade in the NFL. Tony and Roddy combined for 61 touchdowns during the time that they played with Julio.

No other wide receiver in the upper echelon of receiving touchdowns had to share balls with other elite level pass catchers OR they played with quarterbacks that did not distribute the ball as well as Matt Ryan during their careers.

Here is where each of the top five wide receivers of all-time through their first eight seasons.

Jerry Rice

• Catches: 610
• Yards: 10,273
• Touchdowns: 103
• Missed Games: 4

Randy Moss:

• Catches: 634
• Yards: 10,147
• Touchdowns: 90
• Missed Games: 3

Terrell Owens:

• Catches: 592
• Yards: 8,572
• Touchdowns: 81
• Missed Games: 7

Cris Carter:

• Catches: 449
• Yards: 5.833
• Touchdowns: 49
• Missed Games: 11

Marvin Harrison:

• Catches: 759
• Yards: 10,072
• Touchdowns: 83
• Missed Games: 5

During Julio’s first eight seasons in the NFL, has accumulated ridiculous numbers in comparison. In addition to being the all-time leader in yards per game, Julio has also caught 698 passes for 10,731 yards with 51 touchdowns. The kicker, is Julio has missed 17 games in his first eight seasons. So Julio has put up historic numbers and done so while missing an entire NFL season.

There will continue to be many that knock his lack of touchdown production as a slight to his career. As we see from Cris Carter, there is still plenty of time for Julio to get his touchdown numbers to match the rest of his production, though Calvin Ridley may have something to say about that.