The Most Deadly Long-Distance Combinations in NFL History

The deep ball—it’s the pass that SportsCenter producers can’t wait to splice into highlights, the moment that announcers love to lose their voices over, and the play that gets fans and fantasy owners alike off the couch. If you’ve never flipped out and damaged private property after a monster pass completion, then you have no football soul. In today’s vertical passing game (helped on by physical freaks at receiving positions and receiver/quarterback-friendly rule changes), it’s arguably the single-most satisfying play to see executed; it’s the one that offensive coordinators chase, and the one that disheartens the defense the most.

In 2014, we’re blessed to see Calvin Johnson body defenders away from shots via Matthew Stafford—those completions border on the inhumane. But context is important for any keen NFL observer, and the Stafford-to-Johnson deep-threat connection has a select few historical peers. Remember when Randy Moss and Tom Brady laid waste to everyone but the Giants in 2007? Going back further, guys like James Lofton and Fred Biletnikoff were bringing in bombs from Lynn Dickey and Daryle Lamonica, respectively. Join us as we go from the OGs to the new age of big passing duos in The Most Deadly Long-Distance Combinations in NFL History.

Team: New York Giants

In between his lengthy spells as a Minnesota Viking, Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton hooked up with Homer Jones and the New York Giants. Jones, who owns the record for the highest yards per reception average in NFL history at 22.3 (nobody else is over 21 yards per reception), was the fastest receiver of the 1960s. A high school track star, Jones could run the 100-yard dash in 9.3 seconds, which works out to a 3.72 40-yard time. In his time, there was no better man at getting behind the defense for deep bombs.

During their three years together in New York, Tarkenton found Jones deep down the field at every opportunity. Tarkenton averaged 7.63 yards per pass attempt, a number that was helped by Jones’s preposterous 21.96 yards per reception average. Imagine, on average, eating up one-fifth of the field with one pitch and catch. Deadly. Unfortunately, while Tarkenton enjoyed a lengthy 18-year career, Jones’s achy knees forced him to retire before the age of 30.

Team: Oakland Raiders

Blame these guys for every bad quarterback and wide receiver personnel move Al Davis made from 1980 onwards. Lamonica and Biletnikoff were the first duo to intoxicate Davis with the deep ball—a piece of the Raiders offense that Davis tried time and time again to bring to his team every season (JaMarcus Russell and Darius Heyward-Bay are somewhere, crying). From 1967-1972, Biletnikoff reeled in 46 touchdowns, averaged 16.5 yards per catch (with a high of 21.9 in 1967), while Lamonica consistently averaged over 7 yards per completion.

Biletnikoff’s brilliance engendered a special kind of recklessness in Lamonica—he never posted a completion percentage higher than 53 percent in Oakland and was notoriously interception prone. Lamonica went for broke more often than not, and with Biletnikoff sprinting down the sidelines, his outrageous deep passes usually worked out.

Team: Pittsburgh Steelers

For a six-year stretch, Lynn Swann and Terry Bradshaw slaughtered many-a NFL secondary. From 1975-1980, they won four Super Bowls for those legendary Pittsburgh Steelers teams and rained fire and brimstone on opposing defenses. Bradshaw averaged 7.9 yards per pass attempt, and Swann’s 16.4 yards per catch is still an elite clip. Swann’s 44 touchdowns and three consecutive seasons of hauling in a 60-plus yard catch were incomparable for that era. A strong-armed quarterback taking advantage of a speedy wide receiver isn’t anything new or special, but Bradshaw and Swann were the best of the bunch in the 1970s.

Team: Green Bay Packers

Football Perspective named James Lofton the “Yards Per Catch King” this year. They determined that based on the number of receptions he had in relation to the year-to-year NFL average for yards per catch. Lofton recorded 2,502 more career yards than he would’ve been expected to. That’s KING.

But getting back to basics: Over his 17-year NFL career, Lofton averaged 18.3 yards per catch, which—without any other handy statistical work—is absolutely nuts. To maintain that level of big-play ability throughout your career (Lofton averaged 18.8 yards per catch as a 35-year-old in 1991; that age/yards per catch number is something we may never see again), especially in absence of today’s modern sports medicine, hydration, and advancements in kinesiology, is truly special.

During Lofton’s prime with the Green Bay Packers, he had Lynn Dickey tossing him the ball. Dickey was an inconsistent, injury-prone risk-taker leading a decade’s worth of awful Packers teams, but that didn’t stop him and Lofton from nailing some huge hook-ups. The duo’s peak came in 1983, when the Packers went 8-8 (their best mark during the Dickey Era) and Dickey threw for 4,458 yards, 32 touchdowns, and a 9.2 yards per completion average. Lofton accounted for 1,300 of those yards at a league-leading 22.4 yards per reception clip.

Team: San Francisco 49ers

This may be the most deadly combination in NFL history, regardless of qualifiers like “long-distance.” Joe Montana wasn’t known for his arm strength, but his accuracy, passing acumen, and ability to lull the defense to sleep with his short West Coast-style passing, and then hit his man over the top for a big gain, was unparalleled.

By the time Jerry Rice was drafted by the 49ers in 1985, Montana had already won two Super Bowls with famed coach Bill Walsh. Rice and Montana immediately clicked, prompting Montana to have his best statistical season of his already Hall of Famer-caliber career. After Rice posted yards per catch averages of 18.9, 18.3, 16.6, 20.4, and 18.1 (insane, insane, and insane), Montana and Rice straight up bodied the 1990 season. At age 34, Montana posted a disgustingly good 9.1 yards per pass attempt average and threw for 26 touchdowns, while Rice hauled in 100 passes for 1,502 yards and 13 touchdowns. Montana won the only MVP award of his career, but they fell short against the Giants in the NFC Championship game. That would be the last meaningful season of Montana’s career, but for Rice, his career was just beginning to peak.

Team: San Francisco 49ers

Once Montana stepped aside, Steve Young picked up right where he left off. And for Rice, that meant another eight seasons of dominance. The peak of Rice’s powers came from 1991-1995, as he had at least one catch of over 69 yards and led the league in receiving three times, including a record-setting 1995 season in which he totaled 1,848 yards.

Young, again, was no slouch. From 1991-1994, his lowest yards per completion average was 8.6, and he hooked up with Rice for 52 touchdowns, the most over that period. The Montana-to-Rice connection may have won more Super Bowls, but in terms of a rapport, Young to Rice happened more—37 percent of Rice’s career catches were from Young, while 27 percent came from Montana.

Team: St. Louis Rams

Introducing, the “Greatest Show on Turf.” It was short-lived, but electric nonetheless. From 1999-2001, Torry Holt averaged 17.6 yards per catch, and Kurt Warner averaged 9.1 yards per pass attempt. For those three years, these two were as unplayable of a duo as the league has ever seen.

The combination’s crowning regular season stretch came in the 2000 season after winning the Super Bowl in 1999. Holt caught a career-long 85-yard pass and averaged a career-high 19.9 yards per catch while also leading the league with 1,635 yards receiving. Warner, limited to only 11 games due to injury, averaged 9.9 yards per pass attempt. Each would have had better individual seasons statistically, but for those 11 games in 2000, Holt and Warner were balling out together.

Team: Minnesota Vikings

Before Randy Moss had his resurgence with Tom Brady, Daunte Culpepper was his man. The original term “Moss’d,” meaning, “to jump over a defender so said defender is eye-level with your nuts and then hauling in a pass with one out-stretched arm” was coined while Culpepper was throwing up deep balls. From 2000-2004, they hooked up for over 50 touchdowns, while Moss averaged 15.1 yards per reception and Culpepper averaged 7.8 yards per completion.

Team: Indianapolis Colts

With no disrespect to Jerry Rice and his two all-time great quarterbacks, these two may be the best quarterback-wide receiver combination ever. For nine seasons between 1998-2006, Marvin Harrison and Peyton Manning not only dominated, but they stayed healthy. Harrison missed a total of six regular season games, and Manning, well, he just never got hurt.

During that nine year run with Manning at the helm and Harrison basically at full health, Harrison put up 11,995 yards, 108 touchdowns, hauled in a career-long 80 yard catch, and after Manning’s rookie season in 1999, scored double-digit touchdowns in every season. No other pair has sustained that level of play for that long. With injury concerns and the advent of free agency, who else was doing it for a full decade? Manning worked Harrison all over the field, but on the key occasions when he’d air it out, Harrison was there to snag his pinpoint passes.

Team: New England Patriots

As far as 21st century combos go, Tom Brady to Randy Moss was perhaps the most devastating. The pair first linked up in 2007, with Moss coming off of two middling years in the literal Black Hole of Oakland and suddenly finding himself on the wrong side of 30. Brady, starved for any sort of legitimate wide receiver talent (a constant theme throughout his career), sorely needed a star pass-catcher. Up until that point, in the age-old “Who’d ya rather: Manning or Brady” debate, Brady was known as the Super Bowl winner, while Manning’s passing statistics eclipsed the field.

That all changed in that 2007 season. The Randy Moss who became famous for his acrobatic leaps and gazelle-like speed came back to put in one of the greatest receiving seasons ever. With Moss’s career reinvigorated, Brady’s arm got stretched out like never before. Brady topped Manning’s single-season touchdown record (50), and Moss hauled in 23 touchdowns to break Jerry Rice’s single-season record. Brady can thank Moss for his career-best 8.7 yards per pass attempt, a number that he hasn’t sniffed since (his next highest is 7.3).

That explosive offensive duo led the Patriots to a perfect regular season record, but we all know what happened in the Super Bowl. That 18-1 mark must still sting—right, Patriots fans?

Team: Detroit Lions

For fantasy football owner, these two bros need little introduction. With Randy Moss retired, Calvin Johnson is the preeminent deep-threat in the NFL today. The statistics on the field have been staggering for Johnson, but his physical numbers are arguably even more jaw-dropping: A 4.35 40-yard dash time, 6’-5” frame, and 11.7-foot standing broad jump. His 12’-5” maximum reach would be the highest in NBA history, which is even sicker considering Johnson would be a nice height for a shooting guard (for context, Shaquille O’Neal has the NBA record for maximum reach). According to ESPN’s Sports Science, Megatron has a larger range than a two-car garage.

As you can imagine, this makes life a little easier for Matthew Stafford. Johnson doesn’t need an on-the-money pass—just something within his general vicinity, which is still way larger than the relative “general vicinity” for other NFL receivers. He is, quite literally, the greatest physical specimen to ever catch an NFL pass.

Throw in the fact that, hey, Stafford is actually a pretty good quarterback and owns one of the strongest arms in the game, and the pair ends up with huge numbers. Johnson owns the single-season receiving yards record, Stafford once passed for 5,000 yards in one season, and in five of Johnson’s seven NFL seasons, he caught at least one pass over 70 yards. With Stafford getting better and better at age 26, and Johnson firmly in his prime, this duo may hang up their cleats one day as the G.O.A.T. deep-ball combination.