Lorenzo Neal was the greatest blocking fullback of all time. Between 1993 and 2008, Neal paved the way for Warrick Dunn, Eddie George, Corey Dillon, and LaDainian Tomlinson. In fact, Neal bludgeoned linebackers and shielded the edge to lead a 1,000-yard rusher into the clear for 11 straight years. The top receiver from 2014 can be found later on this list. His most-famous catch was the last minute 2013 NFC North clinching, 4th and 8 touchdown reception agains the Chicago Bears. No one will ever forget that. Wes Welker is the greatest slot receiver of all time. Welker revolutionized the way the slot receiver was used in the NFL. In his time with New England, Welker caught 672 passes for 7,459 yards. The Top 10 Browns Wide Receivers of All Time. The Browns built an offensive dynasty during their first 10 seasons of existence; they dominated in the short-lived AAFC from 1946 to '49 and then for. It includes every starting wide receiver from throughout New England Patriots history, including current wide receivers and past ones. Featuring current New England Patriots and some of the greatest NFL wide receivers of all time, the best Patriots WRs include Julian Edelman, Stanley Morgan, Troy Brown, and Wes Welker.

Real talent at the wide receiver position has taken a major hit around the NFL. Some of this could have to do with college teams failing to develop pass catchers.

Others believe that a pass-happy NFL has led to teams relying on more receivers. Hence, the influx of starting slot receivers.

Whatever the reason, many teams head into the 2019 season lacking at this position. It’s in this that we look at the 10 worst starting receivers in the NFL right now.

Zay Jones, Buffalo Bills

Jones might have improved as a sophomore last season, but he has a whole heck of a lot more to go in that category before being considered a starter-caliber receiver. The former second-round pick has caught 47.2 percent of his targets in two seasons and is averaging 5.5 yards per target throughout his career. For comparison’s sake, New York Giants stud youngster Saquon Barkley averaged 5.8 yards per touch as a rookie. He’s a running back. Think about that for a quick second.

John Ross, Cincinnati Bengals

This one is pretty much on the Bengals. Cincinnati listed Ross as its starting slot receiver in the team’s initial depth chart. For what reason, exactly? A top-10 pick back in 2017, Ross has caught all of 21 passes in two seasons. He didn’t even record a single reception as a rookie. Better yet, Ross boasts a career 35 percent catch rate. Some figured Cincinnati might look to move on from Ross this past offseason. Instead, the team might rely on the injury-plagued workout warrior to make an impact under first-year head coach Zac Taylor.

Trey Quinn, Washington Redskins

We’re not going to blame this second-year receiver for Washington having him listed as its starting slot receiver. The issue here, as it has been over the past several years in D.C., is depth. Quinn caught nine passes in three games of action as a rookie last season. Sure he has the look of a pretty solid slot guy dating back to the youngster’s SMU days, but this is not the AAC. We’re going to have to see a whole bunch more from Quinn to even consider him a starter-caliber receiver. That’s only magnified by the perpetual quarterback mess in the nation’s capital.

Hunter Renfrow, Oakland Raiders

Much like other young receivers in this list, it’s not Renfrow’s fault that he’s being catapulted to the top of the depth chart. The former Clemson standout is currently listed as Oakland’s top slot guy behind recent acquisitions Antonio Brown and Tyrell Williams. Depending on Brown’s injury, he could even jump up a notch on Derek Carr’s target list as a rookie. The bad news for Oakland? Renfrow never put up more than 602 yards in what seemed like a decade at Clemson. He lacks athleticism. His upside is limited. They are asking too much from him.

Kevin White, Arizona Cardinals

Sadly, White’s NFL career has been derailed by injury after injury. The former Chicago Bears top-seven pick has played in a grand total of 14 games in four NFL seasons. Fourteen games! He’s caught 25 passes and boasts a 52.1 percent catch rate during that span. Given how stellar White was during his college days at West Virginia, this represents a harrowing tail. It also doesn’t make him any better or more reliable as a receiver for first-year Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.

Taywan Taylor, Tennessee Titans

Is Taylor terrible? Well, that depends heavily on whether you overrate Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota. Let’s say for a second that Mariota is a viable NFL quarterback, what does that say about Taylor? The former third-round pick has caught 53 passes in two NFL seasons. He’s also averaging one touchdown per 42 targets. To contrast for a second, fellow second-year Titans receiver Corey Davis is averaging one score per 44 targets. The moral of the story? Things are not great in Nashville. Taylor deserves some of the blame because of his lackluster overall numbers elsewhere. After all, there’s a reason Tennessee exhausted a second-round pick on A.J. Brown in April. It’s not to take Davis’ spot.

Donte Moncrief, Pittsburgh Steelers

Let’s paint a picture here. The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Moncrief to a one-year, $9.6 million deal prior to the 2018 season. Despite his obvious physical traits (6-foot-2 and 216 pounds), Moncrief had put up a combined 698 yards with a 54.4 percent catch rate in his final two seasons with Indianapolis. Moncrief responded by posting a top-10 drop rate and catching 53.9 percent of his targets last season. The Steelers are now relying on him to replace Antonio Brown behind all-world receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. Good luck with that given Pittsburgh starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger tied for the NFL lead in interceptions last season.

Marquise Goodwin, San Francisco 49ers

Goodwin impressed big time in his first season with the 49ers after an injury-plagued four years in Buffalo. He caught 56 passes for 962 yards while averaging 17.2 yards per reception. Unfortunately, the injuries and lack of production that plagued him in Western New York came back to haunt Goodwin last season. He tallied just 23 catches and hauled in 55 percent of his targets. Still listed as a starter on the 49ers’ depth chart, there’s an outside chance Goodwin doesn’t even break camp with the team. That’s a mighty big fall from grace for the world-class athlete.

Devin Funchess, Indianapolis Colts

Indianapolis surprised a lot of people by handing Funchess a one-year, $10 million contract in free agency. The former Carolina Panthers second-round pick hauled in just 44 passes for 549 yards while boasting a mediocre 55.7 percent catch rate last season. He was also pretty much benched for the final quarter of the campaign. An inability to get open and create space has plagued Funchess throughout his career. We’re not expecting this to magically change with Indy in 2019.

DeVante Parker, Miami Dolphins

Simply put, Parker has failed to live up to the expectations that came with being a top-14 pick back in 2015. Injuries and inconsistency has dogged him at pretty much every turn. Parker missed five games to injury last season, bringing in just 24-of-47 targets for a lackluster 51.1 percent catch rate. While Parker is still listed as one of Miami’s starters, it would not be a surprise to see Allen Hurns or impressive rookie Preston Williams surpass him on the depth chart earlier in the 2019 season.

In the 2019 regular and postseason, per Pro Football Focus data, slot receivers regardless of position (receivers, running backs, and tight ends) accounted for 32% of all targets, 31.6% of all receptions, 32.3% of all receiving yardage, and 34.3% of all receiving touchdowns. In a league where the three-receiver set is by far the default formation (it happened on 69% of all snaps last season, per Sports Info Solutions), having a versatile and productive slot receiver is an absolute necessity in the modern passing game.

Moreover, there is no one kind of slot receiver in the modern NFL. It used to be that you wanted the shorter, smaller guy inside, and your bigger, more physical receivers on the outside. Then, offensive coaches started to realize that by putting bigger receivers and tight ends in the slot, you could create mismatches with slower linebackers and smaller slot cornerbacks. Teams countered this by acquiring linebackers built like safeties, eager to do more than just chase after run fits, and also by moving their best cornerbacks into the slot in certain situations.

Now that offensive and defensive coaches have worked hard to create as many schematic and personnel ties in the slot as possible, the best slot receivers are the ones who consistently show the ideal characteristics for the position. These receivers know how to exploit defenders who don’t have a boundary to help them — they’ll create inside and outside position to move the defender where they want him to go. They understand the value and precision of the option route, and how you can hang a defender out to dry with a simple “if this/then that” equation based on coverage rules. They know how to work in concert with their outside receivers to create route combinations which create impossible math problems for defenses. And they know how to get open in quick spaces.

But don’t automatically assume that slot receivers are just taking the dink-and-dunk routes — they’re actually tasked to catch everything from quick slants to vertical stuff down the seam and up the numbers. Last season, per PFF data, the NFL average for yards per completion for outside receivers was 11.28. For slot receivers, it was 11.63. So, over time and based on the play design and the makeup of the receivers, teams could find just that many more yards by throwing to their slot targets.

The best slot receivers in the game bring unique and highly valuable traits to the game, and here are the best among them.

More Top 11 lists: Slot defenders Outside cornerbacks Safeties Linebackers Edge defenders Interior defensive linemen Offensive tackles Offensive guards Centers Outside Receivers

Honorable Mentions

Had we dropped the qualifying floor to under 50% slot snaps, two guys would have easily made it — Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans, and Baltimore’s Marquise Goodwin. Evans led all slot receivers with at least 25 targets with a passer rating when targeted of 151.3, and Brown was an absolute force against defenses in the slot — especially when he was using his speed in empty formations.

Top Slot Receivers Of All Time Nfl

San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel, who was probably the MVP of the first half of Super Bowl LIV before things started to go backward for his team, would have received a mention as well — Samuel had just 33 targets, but caught 28 of them and helped his quarterback to a 135.3 rating when he was targeted in the slot. Kansas City speed receiver Mecole Hardman had just 23 a lot targets, but he was also highly efficient with them, helping his quarterbacks to a 133.9 rating. Though Danny Amendola was the only Lions receiver to make the 50% threshold, both Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay were highly efficient when tasked to move inside. Other former slot stars like Tyreek Hill of the Chiefs and Minnesota’s Adam Thielen saw their roles change more to the outside in 2019 from previous seasons.

Of the receivers who actually qualified, Nelson Agholor of the Eagles was quietly efficient and had just two drops in the slot last season — which would go against several memes on the subject. Buffalo’s Cole Beasley just missed the cut, through he was one of several receivers on the Bills’ roster who didn’t always get the accuracy and efficiency they deserved from quarterback Josh Allen. And though Randall Cobb was productive for the Cowboys last season and should be so for the Texans in 2020, his nine drops as a slot man… well, we can only have one guy with nine slot drops on this list. More on that in a minute.

Top Slot Receivers Of All Time Leaders

Now, on to the top 11.

Top Slot Receivers Of All Time Game

Willie Snead IV Julian Edelman Tyler Boyd Jared Cook Golden Tate Keenan Allen Larry Fitzgerald Allen Robinson Cooper Kupp Chris Godwin Tyler Lockett