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Mike Morbeck, Randy Moss with Vikings, CC BY-SA 2.0
The 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame class featured arguably the two best wide receivers of the 2000s, and perhaps two of the most colorful characters as well, in Randy Moss and Terrell Owens. On one hand, the duo terrorized opposing defensive backs with their unmatched combinations of size and speed and by the time their playing careers were over, Moss and Owens were near the top of most major receiving categories (behind only the great Jerry Rice). Yet at the same time, due to their brash and mercurial personalities, they at times clashed with coaches and teammates alike, and were often in the headlines for reasons other than their receiving prowess. Thus, it only seems fitting that the two wide receivers would be inducted into Canton together, leading to the question:
Who was better – Randy Moss or Terrell Owens?
The Beginning
While their football careers have been immortalized in Canton together (at least technically – as was well-publicized, Owens refused to attend the enshrinement ceremony and instead held a simultaneous ceremony of his own at his alma mater Tennessee-Chattanooga), Moss and Owens entered the NFL to different expectations.
Coming out of high school, Moss was a heralded recruit who originally signed with Notre Dame and redshirted at Florida State before transferring to Marshall, where he was a 2x All-American, Fred Biletnikoff winner as the best wide receiver in college football, and fourth in the 1997 Heisman Trophy voting (behind Charles Woodson, Peyton Manning, and Ryan Leaf). Despite being projected as a top pick, legal concerns caused Moss to slip to the 21st overall pick in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft to the Minnesota Vikings, which may have proved to be a blessing in disguise. With quarterback Randall Cunningham experiencing a career renaissance under center and future Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter lining up opposite him, Moss took the league by storm as a rookie – in his first career game, he had 4 catches for 95 yards, including 48 and 31-yard touchdown receptions; similarly, on Thanksgiving Day 1998, Moss put together an incredible stat line against the Dallas Cowboys: 3 catches for 163 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 46-36 victory. Overall, Moss recorded 69 receptions for 1,313 and a rookie-record 17 touchdowns en route to being named Offensive Rookie of the Year, a Pro Bowl starter, and an All-Pro.
On the other hand, Owens was a three-sport star (football, basketball, track) at Tennessee-Chattanooga and set the school’s single-season receptions record; however, due in part to the school’s lower profile playing in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), he fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the third round (89th overall pick) of the 1996 draft. On a veteran 49ers team with Super Bowl aspirations led by future Hall of Famers Steve Young and Jerry Rice, Owens had a modest rookie year, hauling in 35 receptions for 520 yards and 4 touchdowns. His role increased in 1997 after Rice was lost for the year with a torn ACL, and Owens established himself as a bona fide star in 1998 by hauling in 67 receptions for 1,097 yards (his first 1,000-yard season) and 14 touchdowns (the first of eight double-digit touchdown seasons). Perhaps most memorably, after numerous dropped passes in an NFC wildcard game vs. the Green Bay Packers, Owens caught the game-winning touchdown pass from Steve Young in what is now known as the Catch II.
Career Comparison
While Moss is best-known as a Viking and Owens would likely be enshrined in Canton as a 49er if football had the same induction traditions as the Baseball Hall of Fame, each player’s career consisted of both amazing highs on the field and off-field issues that ultimately led to both bouncing around to various teams over the course of their illustrious careers.
Moss spent his first seven seasons with the Vikings, accumulating six 1,000-yard receiving seasons and six years of 10+ touchdowns, and was named a Pro Bowler 5x and an All-Pro 3x. His best statistical season with Minnesota came in 2003, when Moss had 111 receptions for 1,632 receiving yards (both career highs) and scored 17 receiving touchdowns. However, coming off an injury-plagued 2004 season and with the Vikings in rebuild mode following a disappointing 8-8 campaign, the team decided it had had enough of Moss’ well-documented on-field and off-field antics and shipped him to the Oakland Raiders for linebacker Napoleon Harris and the seventh overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft (which eventually became wide receiver bust Troy Williamson).
From the start, Oakland was a match made in hell – Moss had two of the worst seasons of his career, while the Raiders continued to struggle. Thankfully for Moss, after a couple of seasons in purgatory in Oakland, he was traded to the New England Patriots for a mere fourth round pick in the 2007 NFL draft and experienced a career renaissance. This included perhaps his best season ever – playing with arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history, Tom Brady, Moss had 98 receptions for 1,493 yards and an NFL-record 23 touchdown catches (surpassing Jerry Rice’s previous record of 22) in 2007.
Following two more productive seasons with the Patriots (1,000+ receiving yards and 10+ touchdowns in each of the 2008 and 2009 seasons), Moss’ career came full-circle as he was traded back to the Vikings a quarter of the way through the 2010 season; after spending 2010 with three different teams (Patriots, Vikings, Tennessee Titans), Moss “retired” in 2011 before suiting up for one final, largely forgettable season with the 49ers in 2012.
Similarly, following Steve Young’s retirement in 1999 and Jerry Rice moving on to the Raiders, Owens formed a close connection with new 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia (at least on the field) and put together three straight All-Pro seasons from 2000-2002, averaging 97 receptions for 1,388 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns over that span. Despite sensational production, including catching a then-record 20 passes for 283 yards and a touchdown in a 17-0 victory over the Chicago Bears on December 17, 2000, Owens’ tenure with the 49ers was marred by his feud with Garcia and other distracting antics, including his infamous Dallas star touchdown celebration in 2000.
After eight seasons in San Francisco, Owens left to join the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004 and formed an instant connection with quarterback Donovan McNabb, helping to lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl in his first season, where they fell to the Patriots. However, it was deja vu all over again, as Owens feuded bitterly with McNabb and was suspended midway through his second season with Philadelphia for conduct detrimental to the team.
In an ironic twist, Owens’ next stop was with the Dallas Cowboys, where he connected with Tony Romo to string together three consecutive 1,000+ receiving yard, 10+ touchdown catch seasons from 2006-2008. He concluded his career as a journeyman, albeit a very productive one, with the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals before retiring after the 2010 season.
All in all, Owens played one more season than Moss and had more career receptions (1,078 vs. 982) and receiving yards (15,934 vs. 15,292), while Moss caught more touchdown passes (156 to 153) and had more 1,000-yard receiving seasons (10 vs. 9) and double-digit touchdown seasons (9 to 8). Both were named to the Pro Bowl 6x, while Owens garnered All-Pro honors 5x to Moss’ 4x. On a per game basis, their stats are also very comparable: over 218 career regular season games, Moss averaged 4.50 receptions for 70.15 yards and 0.72 touchdowns per game vs. 4.92 receptions for 72.76 yards and 0.70 touchdowns per game for Owens over the span of 219 regular season games.
Regular Season Statistics
| Randy Moss | Player | Terrell Owens |
| 14 (1998-2010, 2012) | Seasons | 15 (1996-2010) |
| 218 | Games Played | 219 |
| 982 | Receptions | 1,078 |
| 15,292 | Receiving Yards | 15,934 |
| 156 | Receiving Touchdowns | 153 |
| 6x | Pro Bowls | 6x |
| 4x | All-Pro | 5x |
| – | Super Bowls | – |
| Offensive ROY | Other Awards | – |
| 2018 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2018 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
During their careers, both Moss and Owens played near the equivalent of one full regular season’s worth of playoff games, with statistics generally below their regular season production – Moss played in two Super Bowls and Owens in one, but neither came away with a ring.
In Super Bowl XLII in 2008, the Patriots were thwarted in their attempt to become the first unbeaten team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, falling to the New York Giants 17-14 in a game best known for David Tyree’s incredible helmet catch; while Moss scored the go-ahead touchdown with 2:42 left in the game to put New England up 14-10, he had a modest game overall by the standards of his record-breaking season (5 catches for 62 yards). Though he returned to the big game in 2012 in Super Bowl XLVII as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, Moss was more of a role player by then and had 2 receptions for 41 yards in another losing effort.
Meanwhile, as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, Owens put forth a gutsy and herculean effort in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 vs. the Patriots – despite suffering a severely sprained ankle and fractured fibula on a horse-collar tackle by Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams in a mid-December regular season game, he came back ahead of schedule and played in the Super Bowl on essentially a broken leg, leading the Eagles with 9 receptions for 122 yards in a losing cause.
Playoff Statistics
| Randy Moss | Player | Terrell Owens |
| 15 | Games Played | 12 |
| 54 | Receptions | 54 |
| 977 | Receiving Yards | 751 |
| 10 | Receiving Touchdowns | 5 |
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; as evidenced by their final journeyman years, Moss and Owens were no exception in beating Father Time. 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, which not surprisingly, Moss and Owens are on for the 2000s), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Randy Moss | Player | Terrell Owens |
| 1998-2003, 2005, 2007-2009 | Decade of Dominance | 1998, 2000-2004,2006-2008, 2010 |
| 160 | Games Played | 150 |
| 835 | Receptions | 821 |
| 13,145 | Receiving Yards | 12,132 |
| 132 | Receiving Touchdowns | 126 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
In looking at each player’s decade of dominance, the numbers for Moss and Owens, like their overall career totals, are very similar; due to his more brilliant peaks and lower valleys, Moss’ statistics across the board are slightly better than Owens’ for their 10-year peaks.
My Thoughts
If you ask anyone who watched football or played fantasy football in the 2000s about who the best wide receiver was during that time, chances are the majority of them will either say Randy Moss or Terrell Owens (the only other wide receiver in the conversation is Marvin Harrison, though how much of his success stemmed from having Peyton Manning as his quarterback? I digress – a conversation for another time). While their final career statistics and awards/accolades are quite similar, I think Moss and Owens were very different types of players. On one hand, Moss, with his lanky 6’4” frame and long stride, was a blazer who could absolutely blow by opposing defenders and literally score on any play; at his absolute peak, he was unguardable and without question the best wide receiver in the NFL (see his 23 touchdown season with the Patriots), but too often was unfocused and lackadaisical in his effort (Exhibit A is his tenure with the Raiders). Meanwhile, Owens was a physically dominant beast who overpowered defensive backs with his combination of size and speed; though he may have been a distraction to his teams, his commitment and effort on the field was rarely questioned (how many other “prima donnas” have you seen not only play, but excel in the Super Bowl with a broken leg?). In short, I would say that Owens was the more consistently great player and had a higher “floor”, but Moss was the more talented player and exhibited a higher “ceiling”.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Randy Moss
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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