The Hall of Fame has released its list of 17 finalists for the Hall of Fame, including four wide receivers. Jerry Rice tops the list as a shoo-in, while Tim Brown, Andre Reed, and Cris Carter round out the other three.
In the case of Reed from the Buffalo Bills, Reed benefited from a pass-orientated offense, was on a team that has six Hall of Famers, and generally didn't dominate despite the famous K-Gun offense.
Between Carter and Brown, Brown had more receiving yards and ranked in the top five of the NFL in four different years in an era of the NFL where the statistics of receivers have skyrocketed. Meaning that, amongst tough competition, Brown excelled, despite having little offensive support for most of his career with the Raiders.
Carter had more receiving touchdowns, but played on a more complete offense with a better running game, offensive line and quarterback. Yet Carter was beat on his team in receiving yards by Jake Reed and Randy Moss, meaning that the Vikings' offense put Carter in position for the touchdown.
Brown meanwhile spent much of his career opposite James Jett; hardly comparable to having Randy Moss detract attention from the defense.
Yet, you could argue that Brown often put the Raiders in position to score touchdowns by other players such as James Jett who scored 12 touchdowns in 1997 and Rickey Dudley who scored seven, and both had less 1,000 receiving yards, while Brown led the league in receptions and topped 1,400 receiving yards in 1997.
Thus, in comparison with Reed and Carter, Brown excelled with less support.
On the flip side, you could say that Brown benefited from the fact that he was the only target for the Raiders until Jeff George (1997...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
