Ranking the Top 5 Baltimore Ravens Wide Receivers of All Time

The

Baltimore Ravens

are unquestionably one of the most successful

NFL

franchises of the last three decades. While the team has only been around since 1996, it’s already won more than 250 games and has won two Super Bowls.

What is also true is that the list of the best Ravens wide receivers of all time has to be one of the worst in the entire league.

The second fact here takes nothing away from the first. In fact, it only serves to enhance it. The Ravens have an identity that has typically been based on running the football and playing elite defense. That’s why the best players in franchise history are names like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Jamal Lewis. But the truth of the matter is, the team has never had a go-to, unquestioned number one franchise wide receiver.

There have been some good receivers in Baltimore over the years but never any great ones, at least not for any lengthy period of time. The great names that have played for the team — Steve Smith Sr., Odell Beckham Jr., Anquan Boldin — spent a relatively short time in Maryland and made the majority of their money elsewhere.

Still, the headline says the top five Ravens wide receivers of all time, not the top two, top three, or top zero. So, let’s go ahead and talk about the five best Baltimore wideouts in history.

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1

Derrick Mason

Derrick Mason was the most consistent and productive Ravens receiver of all time despite only playing less than half his career in Baltimore

The preamble above is not to take shots or disparage Derrick Mason. He was a solid NFL wide receiver for a very long time, 14 seasons to be exact, although he did spend more time with the

Tennessee Titans

(eight seasons) than he did with the Ravens (six seasons).

Still, he is the franchise’s all-time leading pass-catcher with 471 receptions and 5,777 yards. His 29 receiving touchdowns are fourth in team history.

Mason didn’t get to Baltimore until he was 31, which makes the fact that he had so much production for such a long time even more impressive. He had three straight 1,000-plus-yard seasons and led the team in receiving yards four times.

The former Michigan State WR played in a window between the Ravens’ two Super Bowl victories, so he never hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Still, Mason was on teams that made the playoffs four times in six seasons, which is a pretty good record overall.

2

Torrey Smith

This DMV native was great at one thing: going deep

Torrey Smith came to the Ravens in the second round of the 2011

NFL Draft

. The 6-foot speedster was an excellent deep threat for the team, and despite playing just four seasons for his local(ish) NFL team — Smith grew up in Virginia and went to Maryland — he is near the top of every career receiving category in franchise history.

Smith’s 213 catches, 3,591 yards, and 30 touchdowns are seventh, fourth, and third, respectively, in team history. And if you take out great Ravens tight ends like Todd Heap and Mark Andrews, he is third, second, and first among pure wide receivers.

After four seasons, after Smith led the team in receiving yards twice and put up an impressive 16.9 yards per reception, the Ravens let Smith walk when the

San Francisco 49ers

offered him a big deal.

This is informative about how the Ravens see WRs. Baltimore seems content to get a solid few years out of a receiver and then, due to age or skill, let them get their next contract elsewhere. This has worked out pretty well for the Ravens, who have won two Super Bowls with that strategy, including one with Smith in 2012.

The former Terrapin had an impact in that playoff season, too, catching 11 balls for 233 yards and two touchdowns.

3

Anquan Boldin

While his best years were with the Cardinals, Anquan Boldin’s Super Bowl ring came from the Ravens

Another Ravens WR archetype is Anquan Boldin, the pass-catcher who was a star with the

Arizona Cardinals

, with whom he won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2003 and made the Pro Bowl three times.

When he got to Baltimore, Boldin was 30, and his best days were behind him. However, there was still a lot of gas left in the tank for the three years he spent with the Ravens. He led the team in receiving yards every season he was there and never had less than 57 catches or 837 yards.

Boldin left for San Francisco the offseason after the Ravens beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl, and his stats were actually better there, as he had a pair of 1,000-plus-yard seasons. With the Ravens, though, Boldin was a winning player and just what young quarterback

Joe Flacco

needed to become “elite,” if you subscribe to the fact that he was in that Super Bowl season.

4

Mark Clayton

The Dolphins receiver with the same name is much better known, but this Mark Clayton did solid work for the Ravens

While Mark Clayton of the

Miami Dolphins

in the 1980s was a five-time Pro Bowler and one of the best wide receivers in Dolphins history, the Ravens’ Mark Clayton never quite reached those heights.

Still, the younger Clayton (no relation), who played for Baltimore from 2005 to 2009, also ended up on a team’s “best of” list.

Clayton was the No. 22 overall pick out of Oklahoma in the 2005 NFL Draft, but after suffering several nagging injuries as a rookie, his first season was a bit of a bust with 44 catches for 471 yards and two touchdowns in 14 games.

The next season would be Clayton’s best, with 67 grabs for a career-high 939 yards and five scores. When his Ravens career came to an end and Clayton moved on to the

Los Angeles Rams

, his final numbers in Baltimore would be 234 receptions for 3,116 yards and 12 touchdowns.

While those may not sound like lofty numbers, in the world of Ravens pass-catchers, he is fifth all-time in catches and yards and actually 14th in receiving touchdowns despite only having a dozen.

5

Qadry Ismail

The Ravens successfully turned “The Missile” from a kick returner into a wide receiver and reaped the benefits

Another solid wideout coming to Baltimore later in his career for a short time equals another entrant onto the list of the best Ravens wide receivers of all time.

Coming out of Syracuse in 1993, “The Missile” played six NFL seasons for the

Minnesota Vikings

, Dolphins, and

New Orleans Saints

before making it to Baltimore. And in that time, he was much better known — and more utilized — as a kick returner than a wide receiver.

However, when the Ravens signed him at 29 in 1999, Ismail broke out as a wideout, putting up 1,000-yard campaigns in two of his three years with the franchise. His lowest production came in 2000 when he only got to 655 yards. However, in the playoffs, he had a crucial nine receptions for 150 yards on the way to a Super Bowl title.

All told, in just 47 games, Ismail had 191 catches for 2,819 yards and 18 touchdowns. That puts him 11th, seventh, and sixth in those categories all-time for the Ravens.

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise.

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