Best Wide Receiver duos of the decade according to PFF WAR
➤ 2014 Packers (Jordy Nelson & Randall Cobb)
➤ 2015 Steelers (Antonio Brown & Markus Wheaton)
➤ 2018 Rams (Brandin Cooks & Robert Woods) pic.twitter.com/HEvfBJbu1Y— PFF (@PFF) July 13, 2020
At least one metric highlighted the work of Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb during the 2014 season as one of the top seasons by a receiver duo during the past decade.
Pro Football Focus’s “PFF WAR” metric attempts to replicate the wins above replacement metric from baseball. In the simplest terms, the stat measures a player’s contribution to a team relative to the average player. By PFF WAR, the Green Bay Packers duo produced the top season by a pair of receiver teammates in the NFL between 2010 and 2019.
The 2014 season was the height of both player’s individual powers. Nelson caught a career-high 98 passes for a career-high 1,519 yards. Cobb caught a career-high 91 passes for a career-high 1,287 yards. Together, they caught 189 passes for 2,806 yards and 25 of Aaron Rodgers’ 38 touchdown passes for the 12-4 Packers, a team that led the NFL in scoring at over 30 points per game and came within one successful onside kick defense away from playing in the Super Bowl.
Nelson and Cobb both made the Pro Bowl, while Rodgers went on to win NFL MVP.
Together, Nelson and Cobb were a dynamic receiving duo, with Nelson creating big plays at the intermediate and deep levels while Cobb dominated underneath and after the catch. And both receivers enjoyed telepathic connections with Rodgers in big moments and in the scoring area.
It was just never as good as it was in 2014.
Nelson tore his ACL during the next preseason and missed the entire 2015 season, robbing the Packers of a year of connections between Rodgers and Nelson. He returned in 2016 and caught 97 passes for 1,257 yards and a league-high 14 scores. The Packers released him following the 2017 season and he officially retired before the 2019 season.
Cobb caught 79 passes the next season but never again approached the kind of dominant numbers he produced as the game’s top slot receiver in 2014. He left the Packers following the 2018 season.
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