Ranking the Top 5 Tennessee Titans Wide Receivers of All Time

The Tennessee Titans , and, by extension, the Houston Oilers, have played roughly six and a half decades of professional football and have featured some of the best running backs in NFL history, from Earl Campbell to Eddie George to Derrick Henry .

So, while the list of the best Titans wide receivers of all time is nowhere near as impressive as that lineup, the franchise has had some good pass catchers over the years, most of whom are often forgotten about.

This list goes all the way back to the early years of the franchise, when the team started out by winning back-to-back AFL Championships in 1960 and 1961. And it goes through the early 2000s.

The one player this list doesn’t include is A.J. Brown , who was drafted by the Titans in 2019. While he had three excellent seasons in Tennessee, his best years have come with the Philadelphia Eagles , and with the other players on the list playing for the franchise for much longer, he simply couldn’t crack the top five.

So, who are the five best Titans wide receivers of all time? Let’s jump right into it.

1 Charley Hennigan

Charley Hennigan scored the first TD in team history and became the franchise’s best WR ever

The Oilers became a professional franchise in 1960 for the inaugural AFL season, and on that first team was a 6-foot-1 speedster named Charley Hennigan.

Hennigan went to LSU in the 1950s to run track but ended up transferring to Northwestern State to play football. After going unselected in the 1960 NFL Draft , he joined the Oilers for their first-ever campaign and scored the first touchdown in franchise history that year.

After a decent rookie season in which he recorded over 700 receiving yards, Hennigan blew up in year two, leading the AFL in receiving yards (1,746) and yards per game (124.7). That second number is still second in pro football history behind only San Diego Chargers WR Wes Chandler’s 129.0 in 1982.

Three seasons later, Hennigan would have another incredible season, leading the league in both catches (101) and receiving yards (1,546). All told, he would rack up five AFL All-Star Game appearances and three First-Team All-AFL selections in his seven-year Oilers career.

Most importantly, Hennigan helped the Oilers win two championships, which the franchise hasn’t done since, whether based in Houston or Nashville.

2 Haywood Jeffires

Haywood Jeffries was the big, fast wideout that made the Run & Shoot go in the ’80s and ’90s

Haywood Jeffires played in one of the most fun eras of Oilers football alongside fellow wideout Ernest Givins (more on him later) and Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon. Under revolutionary offensive coordinators June Jones and Kevin Gilbride, this group ran the famed Run & Shoot offense of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A forebearer of the spread offense, the Run & Shoot utilized four-WR sets, and players of varied styles and skill sets to spread the field and open up the power run game. To execute properly, the team must have a deep stable of talented pass-catchers, and the Oilers certainly did with Jeffires.

A first-round pick out of North Carolina State in 1987, Jeffires (pronounced like “Jeffries”) played nine of his 10 NFL seasons with the Oilers. Over that time, the WR racked up 535 catches for 6,334 yards and 47 touchdowns. From 1991 to 1993, he made three straight Pro Bowls, and in that first season, he led the league with 100 receptions and earned First-Team All-Pro honors.

The Run & Shoot period in Oilers history is one of the most successful eras the franchise ever had, as those teams made seven straight playoff appearances from 1987 to 1993.

3 Ernest Givins

Warren Moon’s other favorite target with the Oilers has the most yards in franchise history

Alongside the 6-foot-2 Jeffires in the Run & Shoot offense was 5-foot-9 Ernest Givins, a 1986 second-round pick out of Louisville. Splitting hairs and ranking Jeffries and Givins is incredibly difficult, as both played roles of equal importance in the offense and on those Oilers’ teams.

Both players played nine seasons in Houston, and Givins ended up with 542 catches, 7,937 yards, and 46 touchdowns. Those are the most receiving yards in Titans franchise history, the most receptions, and fifth for most receiving scores.

Givins also has two Pro Bowls under his belt and the same playoff streak as Jeffries. The reasons the latter gets the nod are the extra Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods. Even so, it was tempting to give Givins bonus points for his electric-slide touchdown dances that lit the Astrodome crowds on fire in the ’80s and ’90s.

4 Derrick Mason

Derrick Mason is the Ravens’ all-time leading WR, but he was even better on the Titans

Derrick Mason spent eight years with the Titans after the team drafted him in the fourth round of the 1997 NFL Draft out of Michigan State. Mason spent the first three seasons of his career primarily as a kick returner, but was huge in that role.

In 1999, the only season in which the franchise ever appeared in the Super Bowl , Mason had over 1,000 yards in punt and kick returns, as well as a regular-season punt-return touchdown. In the AFC Championship Game, he had another score, this time on a kick return, and had 122 kick return yards in the team’s heartbreaking Super Bowl 36 loss to the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams .

A season later, Mason finally started getting opportunities at WR, and he put up over 800 yards through the air. Combine that with his league-leading 662 punt-return yards and 1,132 kick-return yards (and a rush for one yard), and that added up to 2,690 all-purpose yards, which was also best in the NFL.

Mason would go on to put up four 1,000-plus-yard seasons with Tennessee and make both of his Pro Bowls there. He ultimately left for the Baltimore Ravens and did pretty well there, too, as he is that franchise’s all-time leading receiver.

5 Ken Burrough

Ken Burrough didn’t have much team success, but he put up some great numbers

While all the WRs above had some varying degrees of success with the Titans franchise, they all had success on their teams, whether it was winning titles (Hennigan), making the Super Bowl (Mason), or appearing in the playoffs often (Jeffires and Givins).

Ken Burrough played for the Oilers for 11 seasons from 1971 to 1981, but only made the postseason three times. However, that was no fault of his own, as the pass-catcher led the team in receiving yards in eight of those 11 campaigns.

A first-round pick of the New Orleans Saints in 1970, the former Texas Southern Tiger struggled with injuries as a rookie and caught just 13 passes. Because of this production, the Saints traded Burrough to the Oilers, and the rest is history.

Burrough had two Pro Bowl seasons in Houston and led the league in receiving yards with 1,063 in 1975. When he retired in early 1982, he walked away with 408 catches, 6,906 receiving yards, and 47 touchdowns in the Baby Blue, which are still good for seventh, third, and T-2, respectively, in franchise history.

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise.