In the comments to this post, Ryan noted that Mike Alstott led the Bucs with 557 receiving yards in 1996, but it was the fewest yards of any player who led his team in receiving yards that season. And in 1997, Karl Williams led Tampa Bay with just 486 receiving yards, also the fewest of any player who led his team in receiving yards that year.

Which made Ryan wonder: why isn’t there a list of the lowest team-leading receiving total across the league for each season? That’s a good question, so I went ahead and generated it for every season since 1950. For example, Jacksonville’s undrafted rookie Allen Hurns led the Jaguars with 677 receiving yards in 2014, but every other team had at least one player with more yards.

Since the merger, just one player has managed to pull off this feat twice, and he did it for different teams… and in back-to-back years! In 2004, Travis Taylor led the Kyle Boller-led Ravens with 421 receiving yards, beating out Kevin Johnson, Randy Hymes, Clarence Moore, and 5 games worth of Todd Heap. Every other team had at least one receiver gain at least 699 yards that year.

The following season, Taylor was in Minnesota. Brad Johnson and Daunte Culpepper split the quarterbacking duties, and Taylor, Jermaine Wiggins, and Marcus Robinson each topped 500 receiving yards. But it was Taylor who led with 604 yards, while every other team had at least one receiver gain at least 687 yards that year. (Also of note: a rookie Troy Williamson had 372 yards, a 25-year-old Koren Robinson ^[1]Do you even remember him in Minnesota?? had 347 yards, and a 24-year-old Nate Burleson had 328 yards).

In the pre-merger era, Bo Roberson (’65 Bills, ’66 Dolphins), and Don Stonesifer (’55-’56 Cardinals) also managed to twice pull off this “worst best” feat.

Finally, I’m not quite sure what to make of Steve Smith appearing on this list, other than the fact that Jimmy Clausen was really, really bad.

Okay, one last note: the Cowboys, Chargers, Seahawks, and Texans are the only teams that do not appear on the above list.