08-21-2023, 05:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-22-2023, 09:34 AM by lemonoppy. Edited 1 time in total.)
Ranking Every HOF WR
I will be ranking every HOF WR by using my very own arbitrary metrics to try and calculate how great these wide receivers are in comparison to each other. Lets begin with a list of available contestants:William Lim
Vladimir Fyodorovich
Vinny Valentine
Trey Willie
Taro Raimon
Saba Donut
Nate Swift
Mark Walker
Kazimir Oles
Kai Sakura
Josh Garden
James Bishop
Jackson Kingston
Errol Maddox
Carlito Crush
Bradley Westfield
Alexandre LeClair
Those are every HOFer who spent at least ½ of their career at WR (sorry King Bronko and Jake Fencik) because otherwise the stat comparisons are unfair and Bronko is in the hall as a QB mostly, same as Fencik is in (mostly) for his kicking abilities. Ok now that that is out of the way, here is the system I used for ranking the receivers. I put it all into a spreadsheet to represent the data better. I judged the receivers by their career numbers, awards and ultimuses. I awarded their points like so:
Rank of receiver out of number of HOFers for yards, catches and touchdowns (as an example, if a player was 4th out of 17th in yards, they would get 14 points while someone ranked 14th would get 4 points)
15 points for MVP
10 for OPY
2.5 for position awards (switched to 1st team All-Pro at their creation in S28)
6 per ultimus win
The scaling is a bit different then it was for RB’s as awards are harder to come by ( only 3 WR MVP’s and 4 WR OPY’s) so higher points while a WR plays less of a role in an Ultimus win so lower points. So without further to do, here are the rankings:
17th Place: Saba Donut (15.5 Points)
Saba Donut played for the Arizona Outlaws during probably their weakest stretch in the proud franchise's history. Despite this, he managed to have an incredible career. He started off his rookie year with a pretty impressive 742 yards and 8 TD’s, and followed up with just short of 1,000 yards and another 8 TD’s. Even with a very solid start to his career, his peak was S22-S25 when he had over 1,150 yards for 4 straight years. His best season in this stretch was S23 when he had 1,400 yards and 12 touchdowns, good enough to snag the WR positional award (the precursor to All-Pro) for the only time in his career. Donut was a great player, but in comparison to other HOF WR’s he falls short. He’s bottom 5 in career yards and catches out of the HOFers and is only one of 2 HOF WR without an ultimus title to their name. Nothing stands out, and his best placement is only 10th out of 17th in any stat so all of this leaves him as the worst HOF WR.T-15th Place: Errol Maddox (28 points)
Errol Maddox was a very unique receiver, as he didn’t have many catches but capitalized every single time he touched the ball. Maddox only had 592 career catches, last out of HOFers but he averaged an insane 18 yards per catch. Maddox used this after the catch ability to have 7 straight 1,000 yard years and have at least 10 touchdowns in 4 of those seasons. He took 3 years to get used to the league but then had his first great season in S15 with 1,000 yards and 13 TD’s and helped Baltimore win its first ultimus in a 49-0 blowout against San Jose. He was also able to win two WR positional awards during a 1,100 13 TD year in S19 and a 1,100 14 TD year in S21. Maddox is still pretty low on this list because he is last in catches and bottom 5 in yards and only 1 ultimus and 2 WR awards to make up for it, landing him as the T-2nd worst HOF WR.T-15th Place: Kazimir Oles (28 points)
Kazimir Oles was another great after the catch player. He averaged 17.45 yards per catch, good for 5th best all time. This led him to be a dangerous receiving threat and a HOFer. He had a pretty great season for a rookie as he started his career with 870 yards and 8 TD’s. By year 3 he was a 1,000 yard receiver and kept it up for 8 years (he had one down season in that stretch with only 900 yards) and helped San Jose appear in and win their first Ultimus in team history during S14. His best season came a year before his ultimus win in S13 when he had 1,250 yards and 13 TD’s, which led him to the WR positional award. After San Jose he bounced around a bit going to Chicago then Arizona and finally to Orange County where he joined in for the last season of the 2nd Otters 3-peat. Oles finishes pretty low on this list because he was below average (whenever I say below average or something similar, I mean compared to other HOF WR’s) in all categories. He’s bottom half in catches, yards and TD’s and only has one personal award to his name, which is why he’s tied for the 2nd worst HOF WR.14th Place: Vladimir Fyodorovich (28.5 points)
Fyodorovich has one of the most interesting careers of any HOF WR because he wasn’t a wide receiver at the start of his career. He was a DB for 4 full seasons and had a transition year as both a WR and DB (I don’t think this has happened in many seasons, but a two position player existed for a couple years as 2 ⁄ 3 of the WR MVP’s played 2 positions.) The position change definitely worked out as in only his second season as a WR he had 1,600 yards and 10 TD’s while also averaging over 20 yards per catch which led him to win OPY and become the first WR to do so. From when he switched in S11 to when he started to age in S18, he had 7 1,000 yard seasons, 6 1,100 yard seasons and 3 1,300 yard seasons. He was also able to snag his first title as a DB and won his second during his two way player year in a 42-36 overtime thriller against the hawks. Fyoforovich is still only 14th on this list because he limited his stats by playing DB and is 2nd last in catches and last in yards and TD’s compared to his peers. 13th Place: Nate Swift (31 points)
It took Nate Swift a couple years to get going in the league, but once he did he became an elite receiver. Swift showed steady improvement his first 3 seasons on the wraiths before breaking the 1,000 yard barrier in his 4th season. He followed that 1,000 yard season up with 5 more, including 4 1,100 yard seasons and had his best season the year after. In S18, his 5th year in the ISFL he had his best season with 1,450 yards and 7 TD’s, narrowly losing the WR positional award to Vinny Valentine. He was able to have another 4 great years with the wraiths but then he started to regress and hadn’t gotten his first ultimus win yet. Luckily, in S23 he made it back to ultimus bowl looking for revenge (he was one of the best players during the wraiths 4 ultimus losses in a row streak, including two one score games to the otters) and was finally able to hoist the trophy. He then ended his career on the Sabercats and was there for their back to back ultimus wins. Swift had an insane 7 ultimus appearances during his 11 year career and went a respectable 3-4. He’s not higher because he never won an individual award (only two other HOFers haven’t) and despite being average in catches is bottom 3 in yards and touchdowns placing him as the 13th best HOF WR.12th Place: Alexandre LeClair (33 points)
LeClair’s career started off pretty slow. He spent his rookie season with the Wraiths and went to the Legion in his second season. By his 4th year in the league he needed change. He had spent 3 years with the Legion and only had 1 1,000 yard season to show for it. Luckily, he got the change he needed and joined the Baltimore Hawks, with his career taking off on the new team. In only his first season on the Hawks he had 1,500 yards and 11 TD’s, 400 more yards and 4 more TD’s than his previous best season. He continued the momentum with 3 straight seasons of at least 1,150 yards and 8 TD’s. Even with the incredible statistics, the Hawks only made the ultimus during the worst season of his time in Baltimore in which he only had 3 TD’s. After losing the ultimus 37-24 to the Second Line he decided if you can’t beat them, join them. In his first year on the Second Line he again crossed 1,000 yards and scored 8 more TD’s than his last year on the Hawks. He got to rematch the Hawks in the ultimus, but his old team beat him 29-23. Determined to hoist the trophy, LeClair returned with another 1,000 yard season and got another game against the Hawks. This time the Second Line came out on top, winning 42-36 in the first overtime ultimus bowl. Shortly after the win he retired, cementing his HOF career with an ultimus win. LeClair finishes in the bottom half despite being 7th in yards and TD’s because he’s only one of three without an positional award (his 1,500 year was the same season Bradley Westfield had 1,700) and only one ultimus win lands him at 12th place.T-10th Place: James Bishop (37.5 points)
James Bishop started his career with the Yeti with a grand entrance as he had 1,000 yards and 7 TD's in his first season. Bishop was also consistent, averaging 950 yards a season throughout his 12 year career. He was loyal to the Yeti, staying there his entire career. Bishop’s most dominant stretch for the Yeti was S14-S15 where he had a 1,200 yard 8 touchdown season in S14, and followed up with career highs of 1,350 yards and 11 TD’s, enough for him to win the WR positional award and OPY that year. But the Yeti couldn’t win the big one for a while, losing by a field goal to the Otters in Bishop’s first appearance in S13. But his loyalty to the Yeti paid off, as right as his numbers started to decline the Yeti made a run to the ultimus in S22. Bishop looked for his chance for revenge as he got to rematch the dreaded Otters who had appeared in 9 of the first 22 ultimus bowls, going 8-1 in those games. Bishop made the most of it as he caught the game winning touchdown in a razor-thin 25-24 upset victory of the Otters. He played one more year for the Yeti before retiring, finishing his career with 11,500 yards and 72 touchdowns. Bishop is kind of the opposite of LeClair, with less stats but more awards as Bishop is only 1 of 4 receivers with a OPY award. Even so, Bishop isn’t in the top half of any statistic and that ranks him tied for the 10th best HOF WR.T-10th Place: Taro Raimon (37.5 points)
Taro Raimon had one of the worst rookie seasons of anyone on this list, having only 300 yards and no TD’s. Raimon had a massive sophomore season, having 1,350 yards and 11 TD’s. That season started one of the most dominant stretches by a receiver in history, having at least 1,100 yards per year until he retired. Raimon didn’t really have a peak as much as an era of dominance. From his second season until his second last season he always had at least 1,300 receiving yards and 7 TD’s. His best seasons probably came in S27, S30 and S33 with 3 dominating performances. In S27 he was 2 yards shy of 1,500 and tacked on 10 TD’s. After two more years he broke 1,400 for the 3rd time in his career (he also hit 1,400 in S29) and set his career high with 14 TD’s. But even compared to all these great seasons, his best was probably S33 in which he had 95 catches for 1,321 and 15 TD’s, where the season ended with Raimon making All-Pro. Despite all of this personal success, his team couldn’t get it done as Raimon lost his only ultimus bowl appearance 27-10 to the Sailfish in S30. Similar to Alexandre LeClaire , he has the stats but not the accolades. Despite being 6th in catches and TD’s and 7th in yards, being only one of two HOF WR’s to not win an ultimus drops him a couple spots, where he ends up tied as the 10th best HOF WR.9th Place: Josh Garden (38 points)
Josh Garden kind of had the opposite trajectory of a lot of the players earlier in this list. Most of them started slow and were dominant until their last or second last season. Garden started fast but ended up having 4 sub-par years of decline and aging at the end of his career. He started his career on the Wraiths with 3 1,100 yard, 7 or more touchdowns seasons. His rookie season (1,150 yards, 7 touchdowns) was enough to capture the WR positional award during the ISFL’s first season. After his time with the Wraiths, he joined the Arizona Outlaws who were fresh off of a three-peat. While the Outlaws couldn’t repeat their same success, Garden had an outstanding year, with 1,580 yards and 16 TD’s. This superb effort was enough to win him the WR positional award in his career best season. Despite leaving the Outlaws for the Liberty, he was able to replicate his success with another 1,580 yard and 16 TD season. He had similar stats again in S6, having 1,590 yards and 10 TD’s. S6 was also his first ultimus appearance, but sadly the Liberty lost to the Otters 23-17. Garden had one more great season in him though, coming back with a 1,300 yards, 6 TD season. During this year the Liberty finally broke through, beating the Otters 28-19 to win Garden his first ultimus. He stayed around in Philly for 2 and a half more years, but never put up more than 750 yards. In the middle of S10 he was traded to the Otters, where he finished his career through S11. Garden is at 9th because he’s just below average across the board. He’s at 7th, 8th and 9th in catches, yards and TD’s but everyone above him either has multiple titles or insane stats, landing him at 9th.8th Place: Vinny Valentine (44.5 points)
I’m pretty sure Vinny Valentine had the worst rookie season of any player on this list (not their fault, just got called up early) with only 11 catches for 115 yards and no touchdowns. Luckily for Valentine, this season was still enough to win an ultimus with the Baltimore Hawks. It took Valentine two more years to become a great receiver. In S12, Valentine’s 3rd season, they broke out with 1,300 yards and 7 touchdowns. Valentine continued the momentum into 7 straight 1,000 yard years, with 4 10+ touchdown seasons in that stretch as well. Valentine played well for the Hawks, winning their 2nd ultimus in S15 with a 49-0 blowout win against San Diego. After the ultimus win, Valentine arrived in Orange County to join the Otters and had a great season with 1,400 yards and 12 TD’s. Those impressive stats won Valentine a WR positional award and OPY, making Valentine only the 3rd receiver to win OPY. Valentine then left for Arizona and had back to back elite seasons for the Outlaws, finishing with 1,400 and 1,350 receiving yards. Valentine also secured their 2nd and 3rd WR positional award during their two years in Arizona. After winning awards with the Outlaws, Valentine left for New Orleans for one season before retiring. Valentine is still average on this list because despite his awards and championships, his career stats are underwhelming. He only played 9 seasons, where most HOFers played 10-12. This limits his stats to bottom 6 in all categories and lands him as the 8th best HOF WR.
7th Place: Carlito Crush (45.5 points)
Carlito Crush is an interesting HOF WR because he has something that no other HOF receiver has that separates him from the pack. But first, Crush took a few seasons and a trade to really get going in the ISFL. He was drafted by Colorado but didn’t really gain momentum until he was traded to the Otters in S7. In S8, his first full season with the Otters, he broke the 1,000 yard barrier with 1,200 yards and 4 TD’s. But next season he did something special. In S9 Crush put together an electric season, going for 1500 yards and 17 TD’s. These stats were enough to win the WR positional award, but also enough to beat out Darren Smallwood 5-4 to win MVP. Crush is the only pure WR to ever do so ( Howard Miller won it, but he also played DB and Ricky Adams won it while also playing RB) and it’s likely no one else will ever do it again. He followed up his MVP season with a 1,400 yard 6 TD season to show his MVP year wasn’t a fluke. He then had one down year (only 950 yards) but bounced back with 3 1,000 yard years and two ultimus wins with the Otters, beating the Hawks 48-24 in S12 and beating the Yeti 24-21 in S13. He played two more years for the Otters and had one more 1,000 yard year before playing one more year and retiring. Crush was hard to rank because his stats aren't great (3rd fewest TD catches) but his awards and championships make up for it. You can tell how close this list is because Crush winning an MVP was the difference between 7th and 13th place, but his legendary S9 is enough to rank him 7th among HOF WR’s.6th Place: Jackson Kingston (54 points)
Jackson Kingston is kind of the divider between HOF caliber and the best WR’s of all time. Receiving yardage shows where receivers separate themselves from others as no one I’ve mentioned yet has over 13,000 receiving yards, while the top 6 all have at least that many. But now on to Jackson Kingston. Similar to LeClair, it took switching teams for Kingston to break the 1,000 yard barrier. In his first two seasons on the Yeti he wasn’t able to break the mark but in year 3 on the Silverbacks he smashed it as he had 1,300 receiving yards and 15 TD’s. Kingston kept his success going for the next 8 years, with 8 1,000 yard seasons, 5 1,200 yard seasons and 3 1,500 yard seasons. It took until S29, his 5th season on the Silverbacks, for the Silverbacks to make an ultimus. The Silverbacks won, beating the Fire Salamanders 40-20 in Toronto. Kingston also knew when to leave, as he left and joined the Sarasota Sailfish and helped them win an ultimus the following year. This one was slightly closer, only winning 27-10 and handing the Outlaws their first ultimus lost in the highest attendance ultimus. After the ultimus win, the Sailfish failed to replicate their success and couldn’t make it back to the ultimus during Kingston’s career. Kingston returned back to the Silverback for his last season in S35 before retiring as a surefire HOFer. Kingston is only 6th on this list despite being 2nd all-time in receiving yards because (somehow) he was never able to make all-pro, win a WR positional award or win an OPY. That’s the only thing holding him back, but he’s still the 6th best HOF WR.5th Place: Trey Willie (55 points)
Like a few other HOF WR’s (LeClair and Kingston) changing cities really started their career. Willie was drafted by the Otters but only had one unproductive season before going to Baltimore. His first season on the Hawks would begin a decade of dominance, in which Willie never had under 1,000 receiving yards. Inside this decade, he had one particularly good stretch from S5-S7 in which had at least 13 TD’s all 3 years. Willie won his first award in S8, a year in which he had a career high 1,390 receiving yards and 9 TD’s, winning him the WR positional award. His second award winning season was in S10, where he had 1,200 yards and 15 TD’s. Those stats were again enough to win the WR positional award for the second time in 3 years. Willie made his first ultimus appearance in between the award winning seasons but lost 37-24 to the Second Line. During his incredible S10, he got his chance for revenge as the Hawks made it back to the ultimus to meet the Second Line once again. This time the Hawks pulled through and Willie won his first ultimus. You could say the Second Line got the last laugh because in Willie’s final season as a Hawk he lost to the Second Line again in a legendary 42-36 overtime battle. After the heartbreaking loss, Willie wound up on the Outlaws having one more 1,000 yard year before playing for 2 more unproductive years and retiring. Willie’s career numbers are fantastic, as he’s 4th in catches, 3rd in yards and has the most touchdown grabs of any HOFer. These incredible stats plus an ultimus win place him as the 5th best HOF WR.4th Place: Mark Walker (55.5 points)
Mark Walker is one of the few players on this list to stay on the same team their entire career, and it might be why Walker is in the hall. He started off slow (two solid seasons, but nothing above 1,000 yards) but was helpful enough to bring home the ultimus for the Wraiths in a 49-17 blowout of the New Orleans Second Line in S26. In year 3 he broke out individually by racking up 1,200 yards and 9 TD’s. He followed it up with 7 straight 1,000 yard years with double digit touchdowns in 4 of those years. Only another year later he was back in the ultimus as the Wraiths won again by beating the Copperheads 24-19 in Milan during S28. A few years later during S31, He had his best season with 1,600 yards and 13 TD’s which earned him 1st team All-Pro. He followed up the All-Pro with 3 more great seasons before age started catching up to him and leading to his retirement after the end of S36. Walker has some impressive stats too, being 3rd in catches and 5th in yards and TD’s. His all around great resume lands him as the 4th best HOF WR.3rd Place: William Lim (57.5 points)
8 players on this list stayed with one team their entire career and those players make up the entire top 4 as well. William Lim got drafted by the Yeti in S22 and had a below average rookie season. Lim made up for it with a massive sophomore year with 1,200 yards and 7 TD’s. He kept up the 1,000 yard seasons for 8 more years and had 6 10+ touchdown seasons during that stretch. Similar to Walker, Lim was able to win the ultimus as a rookie, when the Yeti took down the Otters 25-24 in S22. The Yeti also made back to back appearances to the ultimus in S24 (Lim’s 1,000 yard and 13 TD’s season which he won the WR positional award definitely helped them get there) and S25, and lost both games to the Sabercats in Denver. By S27 he had already been one of the best receivers in the league for a few seasons but his stretch from S27-S30 is legendary. In S27 he had 1,800 yards. In S28 he had 1,800 again. In S29 he had 1,900 receiving yards and finally in S30 he had 1,700 yards. That's 7,200 in 4 seasons which is more than 70% of Vladimir Fyodorovich’s career total in 4 seasons, truly incredible. He won two WR positional awards during that stretch and finished his career a couple seasons later after the end of S32. It’s a shame he was never able to get a second ultimus win, but his stats (top 3 all time in all 3 categories) put him as the 3rd greatest HOF WR.2nd Place: Bradley Westfield (67 Points)
Half of what I consider to be the greatest QB-WR duo in ISFL history, Bradley Westfield started off fast but still took a few years to break the 1,000 yard barrier. But once he did in S3, he crushed it. He had 1,600 yards and 12 TD’s, easily winning the WR positional award. He followed that up 4 more 1,500 yard seasons and 6 straight 10+ touchdown seasons. Westfields lowest number of receiving yards in a season in 962. His worst year (rookie year) was just below 1,000 yards. In S4 he had another 1,500 11 TD season, and him and QB Mike Boss helped lead the Otters to there first ultimus win, a 30-23 victory over the Wraiths. In S5 and S6 he did basically everything a WR can do, a 1,700 and a 1,500 yard season, 2 WR positional awards and two ultimus wins to complete the 3-peat. That’s just about the best season you can have twice in a row. In S7 he almost did it again, having 1,600 yards and 15 TD’s, winning the WR positional award but this time coming up short in the ultimus, losing 28-19 to the Liberty vengeful of their 23-17 ultimus loss the season prior. Westfield then had 3 more great seasons and retired, leaving his mark on the ISFL. Westfield is 2nd because he’s 7th in catches, 6th in yards and 2nd in TD’s with 3 ultimuses and the most All-Pros/Positional awards of anyone. The only thing holding him back is longevity, he only played 10 seasons and prevented himself from accumulating more stats. But either way he is the 2nd best HOF WR.1st Place: Kai Sakura (75 points)
I think a lot of you guys could have seen this coming. Kai Sakura is a legendary player, and a Wraiths legend. Sakura started off hot as a rookie and never let off the gas. He had 1,100 yards and 7 TD’s in his rookie season, one of the best rookie seasons on this list. This was the first of 11 straight 1,000 yard seasons and 10 straight 1,100 seasons. Sakura was in his 3rd season, S26, when the Wraiths made the ultimus and dominated the Second Line 49-17 in Yellowknife for Sakura’s first ultimus win. He got his second 2 years later in S28 where the Wraiths took down the Copperheads in Milan 24-19. 2 ultimus wins and 5 1,100 yard seasons (4 1,200 yard seasons) in your first 5 seasons ain’t bad, but Sakura really showed what he was really about in S29 and S30. In S29 he had 1,838 yards and 15 touchdowns, cruising to a first team All-Pro. The next season was even better, and is (in my opinion) the best receiver season of all time. 1,948 yards (most in a season ever) on 128 catches (7th all time for single season) with 15 TD’s (6th most for single season) is what I think constitutes the greatest WR season ever. He was first team All-Pro this year (obviously) and became the 4th WR to win OPY, and no one has done it since. After that season, he had 4 more 1,000 yard seasons and 1 old man season (only 600 yards) before retiring with the Wraiths. Sakura is the WR GOAT because he’s 2nd all time in catches (1st for receivers) 1st all time receiving yards, 4th in receiving touchdowns. He also has an OPY, 2 1st team All-Pro’s and 2 ultimuses. Sakura even has the longest kick return in ISFL history as well. Sakura is on a different level then everyone else and is easily the greatest HOF WR.Sources/Acknowledgements
I used wolfie bot and the ISFL wiki as sources, thanks to @infinitempg for making wolfie bot and lastly I’ll link the spreadsheet I used to make this article right here. Here is the link for Ranking HOF QB's and Ranking HOF RB's. That's it, thanks for reading.
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