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With the NFL becoming more and more of a passing league, there has been no shortage of outstanding wide receivers since the turn of the 21st century. In addition to the no-doubt Hall of Famers like Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, or Calvin Johnson, the recent group of top-flight pass-catchers has tremendous depth and includes underrated, but highly prolific and consistent receivers like Brandon Marshall and Reggie Wayne. While Marshall and Wayne were never quite THE best receivers in the league, each one was an annual 1,000-yard pass-catcher and a weekly fixture in fantasy football starting lineups; with their careers largely overlapping in the 2000s and 2010s, it is only natural to line them up side-by-side to compare and wonder:
Who was better – Brandon Marshall or Reggie Wayne?
The Beginning
Despite being multi-sport high school athletes who eventually excelled at football for Florida-based college programs, Marshall and Wayne both required an adjustment period to the NFL with relatively slow starts as rookies.
Though he was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marshall lived in both the football hotbeds of Georgia and Florida, eventually settling in Florida. As a high schooler, he starred in football, basketball, and track and field (even winning a state championship in the triple jump) before attending the University of Central Florida to play football. Over his four seasons with the Golden Knights, Marshall gradually improved his receiving numbers (he also played seven games as a safety during his junior year), culminating in a Second Team All-Conference USA selection as a senior. In the 2006 NFL Draft, he was selected 119th overall in the fourth round by the Denver Broncos and had a ho-hum rookie year, totaling 20 receptions for 309 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Wayne grew up in New Orleans and played both baseball and football as a youth before focusing on football in high school. He subsequently attended the University of Miami, where he roomed with future Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed and was a four-year starter, culminating in All-Big East honors and a school record for receptions. Drafted 30th overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 2001 NFL Draft, Wayne produced a relatively quiet rookie year with only 27 catches for 345 yards and no touchdowns.
Career Comparison
From their inauspicious NFL starts, Marshall and Wayne evolved into two of the league’s best wide receivers for a decade – the former succeeded despite dealing with mental health issues that only became public later on, while the latter enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership with Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and long-time running mate Marvin Harrison.
From a middling first year, Marshall exploded in 2007 with 102 receptions for 1,325 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns; this marked the first of seven straight 1,000-yard campaigns and three consecutive 100-catch seasons, including back-to-back Pro Bowls in 2008 (104 catches for 1,265 yards and 6 touchdowns) and 2009 (101 catches for 1,120 yards and 10 touchdowns). Notably, in a December 2009 game vs. Wayne’s Colts, Marshall broke Terrell Owens’ previous single-game record of 20 catches with 21 receptions for 200 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Despite his prolific production, however, Marshall butted heads frequently with Denver coaches and was traded in 2010 to the Miami Dolphins for two second-round draft picks.
As a Dolphin, Marshall compiled a pair of 1,000+ yard seasons, including another Pro Bowl selection in 2011 (81 receptions for 1,214 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns), but was once again on the move after the 2011 season; this time, he was sent to the Chicago Bears for a pair of third-round draft picks and was reunited with former Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler. In Chicago, he had arguably his best year, earning All-Pro honors in 2012 with career-highs of 118 receptions and 1,508 receiving yards, along with 11 touchdowns. This in turn was followed by another Pro Bowl and double-digit touchdown season in 2013 (100 catches for 1,295 yards and 12 touchdowns). However, in 2014, Marshall missed the last three games of the regular season with injury and missed out on 1,000 receiving yards for the first time since his rookie campaign: 61 receptions for 721 yards and 8 touchdowns.
Once again, Marshall was on the move ahead of the 2015 season, traded to the New York Jets with a seventh-round draft pick in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick. Initially, the deal was a steal for the Jets, as Marshall had 109 catches for 1,502 yards and a career-high 14 touchdowns in his first year in the Big Apple to earn a final Pro Bowl selection. He could not replicate that success in 2016 though, and was subsequently released by the Jets and signed by the cross-town Giants; however, he only played five games with the other New York team before suffering a season-ending ankle injury. Upon being released, Marshall signed with the Seattle Seahawks in 2018, but managed just 11 catches in seven games; he later joined the New Orleans Saints, but never played a game for them, thus last suiting up for an NFL game at age 34 in 2018.
With the benefit of so much offensive talent around him, Wayne steadily improved, upping his receiving yardage totals to 716 yards and 838 yards in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Starting in 2004, he reeled off seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons; that year, he had 77 catches for 1,210 yards and a career-high 12 receiving touchdowns, and together with Harrison and Brandon Stokley, became just the fourth trio in NFL history to each have 1,000 receiving yards in a season. A couple of years later, Wayne posted the first of five straight Pro Bowl seasons (and 6x overall) with 86 receptions for 1,310 yards and 9 touchdowns in 2006; individually, his best season came in 2007, when he caught 104 balls for a league-high 1,510 receiving yards plus 10 touchdowns.
Following another strong season in which he posted 82 receptions for 1,145 yards and 6 touchdowns, Wayne had back-to-back 100-catch seasons in 2009 (100 catches for 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns) and 2010 (111 catches for 1,355 yards and 6 touchdowns), with the latter being the only All-Pro selection of his career. However, with Manning’s departure as Indianapolis’ long-time quarterback, Wayne’s production dipped below 1,000 yards in 2011: 75 receptions for 960 yards and 4 touchdowns. While he did bounce back with a final Pro Bowl season in 2012 (106 catches for 1,355 yards and 5 touchdowns), it would be the last great season of his career.
During the 2013 season, Wayne reached the career milestone of 1,000 receptions, but tore his ACL midway through the season; the following year, he recovered to post a line of 64 catches for 779 yards and 2 touchdowns and with Tony Gonzalez’s retirement, became the active leader in career receiving yards. As a free agent who had spent his entire career with the Colts, Wayne signed with the New England Patriots in 2015, but never actually played a snap for the team and would eventually retire in 2016 at 38, having played his last NFL game in 2014.
While Wayne only played one additional NFL season (14 to 13), better durability resulted in two season’s worth of additional games played (32) vs. Marshall. Over that timeframe, Wayne accumulated more career receptions and receiving yards than Marshall, but the latter actually scored one more receiving touchdown. On a season-by-season basis, they are relatively comparable, as both had eight 1,000-yard seasons, six Pro Bowl selections, and a lone All-Pro nod, with Marshall scoring double-digit touchdowns 4x to Wayne’s 3x. Delving even deeper, on a per-game basis, Marshall averaged 5.42 receptions for 69 yards and 0.46 touchdowns per game across 179 regular season games to Wayne’s 5.07 receptions for 68 yards and 0.39 touchdowns per game across 211 regular season games. Currently, neither player is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and given the long backlog of wide receiver nominees (Torry Holt, Hines Ward, Anquan Boldin, Chad Johnson, Steve Smith, Andre Johnson, etc.), it may be a long uphill battle for both Marshall and Wayne.
Regular Season Statistics
| Brandon Marshall | Player | Reggie Wayne |
| 13 (2006-2018) | Seasons | 14 (2001-2014) |
| 179 | Games Played | 211 |
| 970 | Receptions | 1,070 |
| 12,351 | Receiving Yards | 14,345 |
| 83 | Receiving Touchdowns | 82 |
| 6x | Pro Bowls | 6x |
| 1x | All-Pro | 1x |
| – | Super Bowls | 1x |
| – | Other Awards | – |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
In contrast to their comparable regular season careers, there is a significant divergence between the two wide receivers when it comes to the playoffs – Marshall never played in a single postseason game during his NFL career, whereas Wayne was a key piece of a Super Bowl championship team.
Across 11 playoff trips, including nine straight appearances from 2002 to 2010, Wayne endured a number of heartbreaking losses (particularly to the New England Patriots). Nevertheless, the Colts were finally able to exorcise their demons in 2006 by beating Brian Urlacher and the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI; for his part, Wayne contributed 17 receptions for 216 yards and 2 touchdowns during the title run, including 2 catches and 61 yards in the Super Bowl, highlighted by a 53-yard touchdown catch to open the scoring for Indianapolis.
Playoff Statistics
| Brandon Marshall | Player | Reggie Wayne |
| – | Games Played | 21 |
| – | Receptions | 93 |
| – | Receiving Yards | 1,254 |
| – | Receiving Touchdowns | 9 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; Marshall and Wayne were each highly productive for their respective teams for a decade before fading into retirement with unfamiliar teams (Saints and Patriots). For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Brandon Marshall | Player | Reggie Wayne |
| 2007-2016 | Decade of Dominance | 2003-2012 |
| 152 | Games Played | 160 |
| 921 | Receptions | 892 |
| 11,752 | Receiving Yards | 12,002 |
| 80 | Receiving Touchdowns | 74 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
It is a mixed bag over their decades of dominance, though tilted a little more in Marshall’s favor – more receptions and touchdowns for him, but more receiving yards for Wayne.
My Thoughts
During their respective primes, Brandon Marshall and Reggie Wayne were never the biggest stars at wide receiver, but they were certainly among the most productive and consistent – 1,000+ yards year in and year out (including at least one 1,500-yard season apiece), double-digit touchdowns on multiple occasions, etc. At his absolute peak, Marshall may have been the more dominant player (e.g. his 21-catch game), but he was also more mercurial and his impact on winning games somewhat questionable (numerous trades; no playoff appearances) – nevertheless, he does deserve an enormous amount of credit for dealing with and succeeding despite his mental health issues. As for Wayne, the argument is a bit double-edged – yes, he had the benefit of Manning at quarterback and another great pass-catcher opposite him in Harrison, but does that mean he would have been even more productive as the clear-cut #1 option? In any case, because of these factors, I think Wayne is actually a bit underrated – he was a vital cog not only for the Colts’ regular season success, but in the playoffs as well. In terms of the Hall of Fame question, both players are certainly worthy of consideration – ultimately, much like the aforementioned Holt and his running mate Isaac Bruce on the Rams, I do believe Wayne is worthy of induction, but think that Marshall will ultimately fall short given the glut of receivers with similar career numbers and his lack of team success.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Reggie Wayne
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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