Cris Carter and Randy Moss, Vikings, 1998-2001
Oh, this can head in so many directions, and all of them are going to make a group of fans angry. You could easily justify a half-dozen other combinations as the winners here. Lynn Swann and John Stallworth both made the Hall of Fame.4 Elroy Hirsch and Tom Fears were a dominant duo in an era when the game was totally different. If you want to expand out beyond a two-person combination, you can point to the Art Monk–Ricky Sanders–Gary Clark trio that powered Washington to Super Bowl wins with different quarterbacks in 1987 and 1991, or the Greatest Show on Turf’s four-wideout set of Isaac Bruce, Torry ****, Az-Zahir Hakim, and Ricky Proehl.
You can make a reasonable case for any of those teams over any of the others. Carter and Moss stand out, though, for how freakishly dominant they were in their pomp. Carter was already a superstar when this run started, given that he was 33 and coming off of five consecutive Pro Bowl seasons across from Jake Reed. Reed was a good player. Moss was an otherworldly force of nature. Carter slowed down in 2002, but during the four years of this partnership, the duo were first (Moss) and fourth (Carter) in touchdowns by a wide receiver while each finished in the top 10 for receptions and receiving yards. What takes it over the top for me is that they did it with three different quarterbacks; the breakout debut season in 1998 came with Randall Cunningham, who made it to the Pro Bowl without having been an effective starter since 1994. They were almost as great a year later, when Cunningham gave way to Jeff George, with Daunte Culpepper taking over for a multiyear run in 2000. Carter is in the Hall of Fame, and Moss should be in a few years. It’s a narrow victory, and the combination of their names sounds a little too much like a TNT show, but I’m giving this one to Carter and Moss.
the writer went position by position to find the best unit throughout nfl history
http://grantland.com/features/best-units-nfl-history/
Oh, this can head in so many directions, and all of them are going to make a group of fans angry. You could easily justify a half-dozen other combinations as the winners here. Lynn Swann and John Stallworth both made the Hall of Fame.4 Elroy Hirsch and Tom Fears were a dominant duo in an era when the game was totally different. If you want to expand out beyond a two-person combination, you can point to the Art Monk–Ricky Sanders–Gary Clark trio that powered Washington to Super Bowl wins with different quarterbacks in 1987 and 1991, or the Greatest Show on Turf’s four-wideout set of Isaac Bruce, Torry ****, Az-Zahir Hakim, and Ricky Proehl.
You can make a reasonable case for any of those teams over any of the others. Carter and Moss stand out, though, for how freakishly dominant they were in their pomp. Carter was already a superstar when this run started, given that he was 33 and coming off of five consecutive Pro Bowl seasons across from Jake Reed. Reed was a good player. Moss was an otherworldly force of nature. Carter slowed down in 2002, but during the four years of this partnership, the duo were first (Moss) and fourth (Carter) in touchdowns by a wide receiver while each finished in the top 10 for receptions and receiving yards. What takes it over the top for me is that they did it with three different quarterbacks; the breakout debut season in 1998 came with Randall Cunningham, who made it to the Pro Bowl without having been an effective starter since 1994. They were almost as great a year later, when Cunningham gave way to Jeff George, with Daunte Culpepper taking over for a multiyear run in 2000. Carter is in the Hall of Fame, and Moss should be in a few years. It’s a narrow victory, and the combination of their names sounds a little too much like a TNT show, but I’m giving this one to Carter and Moss.
the writer went position by position to find the best unit throughout nfl history
http://grantland.com/features/best-units-nfl-history/
They would have been putting up numbers with Jeff George throwing them the ball.