I was browsing around pro-football-reference.com, and came across this list: (Rank - Player - Total Receiving Yards as a Jet) 1 Don Maynard 11732 2 Wesley Walker 8306 3 Wayne Chrebet 7365 4 Al Toon 6605 5 Laveranues Coles 5941 6 George Sauer 4965 7 Mickey Shuler 4819 8 Jerome Barkum 4789 9 Jerricho Cotchery 4514 10 Rich Caster 4434 11 Rob Moore 4258 12 Keyshawn Johnson 4108 13 Art Powell 3178 14 Robby Anderson 3059 15 Bake Turner 3002 A couple of thoughts: 1) God, what I would do for another TE like Mickey Shuler 2) Never in a million years would I have guessed that Jerricho Cotchery would have more receiving yards as a Jet than Keyshawn Johnson 3) Despite our gloomy history, we have had some pretty impressive wide-receivers over the years.
The sad thing is seeing how many of these guys played back in the 60's and 70's. Only 4 of our top 10 all-time leaders in yards played in the 90's or later. Really hoping that Elijah and/or Garrett crack this list in the next few years!
I became a Jets fan in the early '80s, so I had the pleasure of watching Walker/Toon/Shuler. Watching O'Brien throw to them in '86 was really something. That is, unless the O-Line gave up another sack.
The 81 season was special with the sack exchange. I especially remember the 28-3 victory over GB that clinched the Jets first playoff birth since 69. Shea was rocking that day. Of course then came the painful heartbreaking loss to the Bills in WC game. That was my first kick in the nuts moment the Jets gave me. There have been many more since.
Robby Anderson was a shock to me. How'd a scrawny walk-on who never made it to his 2nd contract make the all-time list? With Sam Darnold as his QB? I guess that speaks to our complete lack of top WRs for the last decade. I'm fairly comfortable saying those days are behind us.
Wesley Walker got those yards with Richard Todd, Matt Robinson and Pat Ryan throwing to him for the first half of his career and with 3 injury seasons in the mix. If the Jets had a real QB before O'Brien showed up on the scene in '84 Walker would have topped 11k yards pretty easily and would probably be the #1 all-time for the Jets. He was All-Pro in 1978 in his 2nd season with Robinson and Todd combining for a 49.7% completion percentage and throwing the ball to the other team 7% of the time. 8-8 that year and every other game saw Walker getting behind the other team for a long-gainer.
Proof that the Jets - inconceivably - abandoned what made them great, and a fan favorite - offense! - in favor of "Defense wins championships". What a dark and dismal period to be a Jets fan...only lasted about 40 years though.
To really put this in perspective it would be good to see listed the number of average number of games played each season. For example Maynard racked up his yardage when they played 12 games a season! Sort of like people comparing RBs now to Jim Brown's records.
Receiver is the one position the Jets have done remarkably well in the draft over the years. And don't forget we also drafted Santana Moss.
Some of these games are my earliest memories as a Jets fan. I still remember my dad yelling and cursing, which he never did, when the Jets lost that wild-card game to the Bills.
The best player on that list was Al Toon. That dude showed up and his first three seasons, the debate was, "Who is the best receiver in the NFL - Jerry Rice or Al Toon?" Then the concussions took over, unfortunately.
Toon was a good one but the guy at the top of the list belongs there. At this point these lists are kind of ridiculous because so few people saw them all perform.
Not to mention standards changed several times over the course of the last 60 years. AFL to NFL and then Run Orientation to Passing Orientation.
And yet the Jets all time receiving leader played in the 1960s when it was clearly a run first league. We have to be the only team in the NFL who's all time leader in receiving yards and catches is from that era
The AFL of the 60's was generally a passing league. This shifted some over the late years of the AFL but it was very true early on.
I'm pretty sure Don Maynard's wallet says "Bad Motherfucker".... and he doesnt need try to convince people that he's an "Alpha male"
Maybe he wasn't as shite as some people insisted, he didn't have a 1k season either, so good riddance