Top-Ten Current Steelers #2: Hines Ward
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All-time team leader in receptions. Single-season team record-holder for catches (112) and receiving touchdowns (12). Three-time team MVP. Four straight Pro Bowl appearances. Known as the best blocking receiver in the league — maybe in the history of the NFL. Super Bowl XL MVP. 700 yards shy of breaking John Stallworth’s 20-year-old team record for most career receiving yards. The consummate professional. And he’s the only wide receiver, to my knowledge, who has given a linebacker a concussion.
How do you not put a guy like this in the top two?
There is no doubt that Hines Ward is one of the best complete receivers to have ever snapped a chin strap. He isn’t the fastest, he doesn’t make acrobatic catches, he doesn’t tell the world how great he is. But he’s one of the best possession receivers in the game, he goes over the middle and laughs about it, he blocks like a well-seasoned fullback and he’s one of the most exciting receivers to watch after he makes a catch.
Hines had a good shot at the top spot on this list. The only thing that ultimately kept him away from number one was the fact that he’s approaching the twilight of an amazing career, while the man who grabbed the top spot is still on the rise. Had this list been compiled two years ago, Ward would have been the hands-down favorite.
His 74 catches 975 yards in 2006 weren’t spectacular, as number-one receivers go. But factor in that he missed two games to injury, as well as the fact that he was one of four receivers on the team with more than 500 yards, and all of the sudden the feat looks more heroic than it did on the surface.
In nine years, he has started all but three games. Sure, the wear and tear is catching up to him. But his last six seasons have been his best. 2005 and 2006 were 25 yards shy of 1,000 yards each; had he not missed one and two games, respectively, in those seasons, he likely would have had six straight years over 1,000 yards.
But he’s not a single-threat receiver. For his career he has totaled 52 carries, 452 yards and one touchdown. Twenty-two times his carries have converted into first downs. And when he isn’t the one running the ball, he’s one of the most dependable blockers in the game, regardless of position. He hits as hard as a linebacker, and takes hits like a man possessed. In the rare event that he gets knocked down, he gets up and laughs at the hitter. It’s his way of marking a future target.
So, I’ll ask you again: how do you not put him in the top two?
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