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The legendary Jerry Rice currently holds all the major NFL receiving records, whether it be receptions, yards, or touchdowns. However, turn the clock back to the end of the 1993 season and the record books looked very different – in particular, for receiving yards, the two names topping the charts were James Lofton (#1) and Steve Largent (#2). Despite very different playing styles, with Lofton being the speedster and Largent being the sure-handed pass-catcher, the duo were two of the most productive players of the 1980s; even with the explosion in passing statistics over the past couple of decades, they remain among the best receivers ever, thus prompting the comparison:
Who was better – Steve Largent or James Lofton?
The Beginning
Both standout football players at the college level, Largent and Lofton came into the NFL with very different expectations, but both made an immediate impact in their rookie campaigns.
A native of Oklahoma, Largent starred in college football for his hometown school Tulsa, where he was a 2x All-Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) selection and led the nation in touchdown catches in back-to-back seasons. Despite his decorated college career, however, he was only drafted 117th overall in the fourth round of the 1976 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers. Interestingly, he never suited up in a regular season game for the team and was traded at the end of the preseason to the expansion Seattle Seahawks for a late-round draft pick in 1977. With a fresh start, Largent had a productive rookie season with 54 receptions for 705 yards and 4 touchdowns.
In contrast, Lofton was born and raised in California and played both quarterback and safety in high school before converting to wide receiver at Stanford. There, he gradually improved and was a Second Team All-American as a senior while also winning the long jump at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. In the 1978 NFL Draft, he was selected sixth overall in the first round by the Green Bay Packers and had a strong rookie campaign with 46 catches for 818 yards and 6 touchdowns to make the first of eight Pro Bowl selections.
Career Comparison
Throughout the 1980s, Largent and Lofton were consistently among the top receivers in the NFL, racking up 1,000-yard seasons year in and year out; by the time they retired, each held various pass-catching records that stood briefly until surpassed by the legendary Rice.
Together with quarterback Jim Zorn, Largent was one of the Seahawks’ earliest stars. After declining to only 33 catches and 643 receiving yards, but with 10 touchdowns in 1977, he had his first 1,000-yard season in 1978 with 71 receptions for 1,168 yards and 8 touchdowns to earn the first of seven Pro Bowl selections and was also a Second Team All-Pro. In fact, he surpassed 1,000 receiving yards in eight of the next nine seasons, with the only exception being the strike-shortened 1982 campaign. Notably, Largent led the league in 1979 with 1,237 receiving yards on 66 receptions, including 9 touchdowns, for a second consecutive Pro Bowl nod and another Second Team All-Pro selection.
As the 1980s rolled around, Largent remained one of the NFL’s consistently great, if somewhat underrated receivers. In 1981, he was again a Pro Bowler with 75 catches for 1,224 yards and 9 touchdowns. His streak of 1,000-yard seasons was snapped in 1982 (493 yards) as the strike limited him to just eight games played. After bouncing back with yet another 1,000-yard season and scoring 11 touchdowns in 1983, Largent would reel off four straight Pro Bowl and 1,000-yard seasons – of particular note:
- 1984: 74 catches for 1,164 yards and a career-high 12 touchdowns; Second Team All-Pro
- 1985: career-highs of 79 catches and 1,287 yards with 6 touchdowns; led the NFL in receiving yards (also a Seattle single-season record until surpassed by DK Metcalf in 2020) and earned his only First Team All-Pro selection
Following his last 1,000-yard season in 1986 (1,070 yards) and his last Pro Bowl/All-Pro selections in 1987, Largent became the league’s active receiving leader with Charlie Joiner’s retirement and would break the all-time receiving record in 1988, also winning the prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year honors. Upon his retirement post the 1989 season at age 35, Largent held NFL records for career receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns (the first player in league history to reach 100 receiving touchdowns), though all of these records have since been surpassed by numerous other receivers.
Though the Packers were mediocre throughout much of Lofton’s tenure, he quickly used his blazing speed to establish himself as one of the league’s best deep-threat receivers. Following another good season in 1979 (968 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns), he racked up six straight Pro Bowl seasons, topping 1,000+ yards in each of them except the abbreviated 1982 campaign:
- 1980: 71 receptions for 1,226 yards and 4 touchdowns; Second Team All-Pro
- 1981: 71 receptions for 1,294 yards and a career-high 8 touchdowns (3x); only First Team All-Pro selection
- 1982: 35 receptions for 696 yards and 4 touchdowns in a nine-game season; Second Team All-Pro
- 1983: 58 receptions for 1,300 yards and 8 touchdowns, leading the NFL with 22.4 yards per reception; Second Team All-Pro
- 1984: 62 reception for a career-high 1,361 yards and 7 touchdowns, again leading the league with 22.0 yards per reception
As a member of the Packers, his last Pro Bowl campaign came in 1985 with 69 catches for 1,153 yards and 4 touchdowns; upon being traded to the Los Angeles Raiders in 1987, he was Green Bay’s all-time leading receiver until he was surpassed by Donald Driver.
On the whole, Lofton’s two seasons with the Raiders were a disappointment, especially a 1988 season that saw him score no touchdowns. Nevertheless, after joining the Buffalo Bills, he was rejuvenated – on a high-octane Bills offense led by Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed, Lofton re-emerged as an elite deep-play threat, highlighted by a final Pro Bowl season in 1991 in which he caught 57 balls for 1,072 yards and 8 touchdowns; with Largent’s retirement in 1989, Lofton became the active leader in receiving yards. After splitting the 1993 season between the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams, Lofton retired in 1993 at age 37 as the NFL’s career receiving leader and just the second player to score a touchdown in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (after Drew Hill).
With NFL careers that overlapped for more than a dozen years, Lofton played two more seasons than Largent and as a result, accumulated more career receiving yards, though his counterpart actually caught more passes and scored more touchdowns. Moreover, when you break it down by seasons and/or games, Largent has the advantage in 1,000-yard seasons (8x vs. 6x) and double-digit touchdown campaigns (3 to 0) with better per-game numbers: 4.10 receptions for 65 yards and 0.50 touchdowns per game across 200 regular season games vs. 3.28 receptions for 60 yards and 0.32 touchdowns per game over 233 regular season games. Conversely, Lofton earned more Pro Bowl selections (8 vs. 7), with both receivers garnering one First Team All-Pro selection. As two of the most prolific pass-catchers ever, both are rightfully members of the Hall of Fame (Largent in 1995 and Lofton in 2003).
Regular Season Statistics
| Steve Largent | Player | James Lofton |
| 14 (1976-1989) | Seasons | 16 (1978-1993) |
| 200 | Games Played | 233 |
| 819 | Receptions | 764 |
| 13,089 | Receiving Yards | 14,004 |
| 100 | Receiving Touchdowns | 75 |
| 7x | Pro Bowls | 8x |
| 1x | All-Pro | 1x |
| – | Super Bowls | – |
| 1x Walter Payton Man of the Year | Other Awards | – |
| 1995 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2003 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Despite consistent production year in and year out, neither Largent nor Lofton consistently contended for a Super Bowl title; in fact, the latter only came close towards the end of his career with the Bills, though was unable to quite reach the pinnacle.
In spending his entire career with the Seahawks, Largent helped guide the team to the playoffs 4x, topping 100 total receiving yards and scoring a touchdown in three of those appearances. The team’s deepest playoff run came in 1983, when Seattle advanced all the way to the AFC Championship Game before falling 30-14 to Marcus Allen and the Raiders.
Though he only made it once to the postseason with Green Bay (during the shortened 1982 season), Lofton was part of the first three Bills teams that would go on to lose four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s. His best postseason came in 1990, when he totaled 13 catches for 323 yards and 3 touchdowns – after catching 7 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown in a 44-34 Divisional Round victory over Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins, he then had 5 catches for 113 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 51-3 thrashing of the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game; however, Lofton was then limited to a single catch for 61 yards in Super Bowl XXV as Buffalo lost to the New York Giants 20-19 on an infamous “wide right” field goal miss by kicker Scott Norwood in the waning seconds, the closest they would get to winning a title.
Playoff Statistics
| Steve Largent | Player | James Lofton |
| 7 | Games Played | 13 |
| 23 | Receptions | 41 |
| 434 | Receiving Yards | 759 |
| 4 | Receiving Touchdowns | 8 |
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; whereas Largent was an incredibly durable and consistent receiver throughout his career, Lofton peaked with the Packers before fading with the Raiders and later rejuvenating his career with the Bills. 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, of which Largent and Lofton are part of for the 1980s as members of the First and Second Teams, respectively), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Steve Largent | Player | James Lofton |
| 1977-1981, 1983-1987 | Decade of Dominance | 1978-1986, 1991 |
| 153 | Games Played | 151 |
| 664 | Receptions | 587 |
| 10,843 | Receiving Yards | 10,728 |
| 88 | Receiving Touchdowns | 57 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
On a normalized basis for their 10 best seasons, Largent holds the edge over Lofton in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns, with the yardage totals being the closest due to Lofton’s big-play ability.
My Thoughts
With the explosion of passing and receiving numbers in today’s NFL, Steve Largent and James Lofton fall further and further down the all-time lists with each passing year (both are now outside the top 30 in career receptions and outside the top 10 in career receiving yards). However, this should in no way diminish each player’s greatness, as they were both top-five receiving options during the 1980s surpassed arguably only by Rice. For a true “burner” and deep-play threat, I think Lofton is your man, but to me, Largent was the more consistent and well-rounded receiver. As unassuming a figure as he may have appeared (5’11” and under 200 pounds), Largent had great hands and put up gigantic numbers for his era, whether that be receptions, yardage, or touchdowns. Historically, I rank Largent among the top 10 wide receivers in NFL history, with Lofton a tier below.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Steve Largent
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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