Brown is averaging more yards per game than his uniform number.
Dating back to December 16, 2012, and including the playoffs, Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown has 578 receptions for 7,755 yards in his last 77 games. Brown has 48 catches in six games this season for 700 yards, a 116.7 yards per game average.
Before the 2015 season, I wrote that Julio Jones had maintained a 100 receiving yards per game average over 57 straight games. I did not include the postseason when I wrote that post, but Jones still would have qualified had I done so: he had 5,703 receiving yards in his last 57 regular season games and 305 receiving yards in his 3 playoff games during that time. Through the end of last regular season, Jones was still keeping this pace up, at 7,417 receiving yards through his last 74 games.
And following the Super Bowl, Jones was at 7,751 yards — or just 4 yards behind Brown’s pace — through his last 77 games. Even through week 3 of this year, Jones had 8016 receiving yards in his last 80 games, but he has had two poor games since: as a result, he’s fall slightly under the 100 yard/game pace in his last 82 games.
But Jones still is at over 100 yards per game through his last 79 games (that’s because the first 3 games in his 82-game streak weren’t great). In his last 79 games, Jones has 7,932 receiving yards, a 100.4 yards per game average.
As for Brown, he’s at 100.7 yards per game over his last 77 games. In other words, Browns and Jones are simultaneously putting together two of the greatest receiving streaks in NFL history.
Lance Alworth averaged 101.0 receiving yards per game in his best 77-game stretch (playoffs included), from October 1963 through the end of the 1968 season.
From week 6 of the 2010 season through week 6 of the 2015 season (playoffs included), Calvin Johnson picked up 7,827 receiving yards in a 77-game stretch, a 101.6 yards per game average.
Even the great Jerry Rice didn’t average 100 yards per game for such a long stretch: his best yards per game average over a 77-game stretch was 95.1 receiving yards, from October 1992 through November 3, 1996. His longest stretch (postseason included) averaging 100 receiving yards per game was 57 games, through week 6 of the 1996 season.
As for Brown, he’s having yet another magnificent season as part of what we can now say with some certainty is a Hall of Fame career. If Brown averages 90 receiving yards per game over his final 10 games (or a lesser amount over fewer games), he’ll have his third season with at least 100 receiving yards per game. In NFL history, only Jones and Johnson have three 100 receiving yards/game seasons (minimum six games), and both are right at three.
With 245 yards over his next 3 games, Brown will be at exactly 8,000 yards over his last 80 games, the equivalent of five full seasons. He is also in line for his fourth consecutive season as AP first-team All-Pro. And Brown is showing no signs of slowing down. He’s picked up a remarkable 46.0% of the Steelers receiving yards.
If that holds — which, to be clear, is extraordinarily unlikely — it would be the highest percentage of team receiving yards gained by a player since Ken Burrough on the 1975 Oilers (50.6%). If he keeps this pace up, Brown could join Rice, Harlon Hill, and Don Hutson as just the fourth wide receiver to win a major NFL MVP award (Alworth also won the UPI AFL MVP award in 1963, too).
With Brown, I’m not even sure what the most interesting question to ask is anymore. What do you think the most interesting Brown debate question is?