News: BTB: Tony Romo And His Many 1,000-Yard Receivers: Passing All Competitors

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1,000+ receiving yards in a season is a stat that is correctly labeled as a season milestone for a player who achieves it. When a player puts up those kinds of numbers, he was at least very successful, perhaps even dominant against most opponents.

Since 2006, 190 NFL players achieved more than 1,000 receiving yards in one season. 13 of those seasons belong to Cowboys players. Off the top of your head, how many teams do you think had more 1,000-yard receivers than the Cowboys over those nine years? More than three? More than five?

Before we answer that question, let's first look at how many and which Cowboys players exceeded 1,000 receiving yards over the last nine years.

Cowboys 1,000-yard receivers, 2006-2014
Year Player Yards Player Yards
2006 Owens 1,180 Glenn 1,047
2007 Owens 1,355 Witten 1,145
2008 Owens 1,052 - - - -
2009 Austin 1,320 Witten 1,030
2010 Austin 1,041 Witten 1,002
2011 - - - - - - - -
2012 Bryant 1,382 Witten 1,039
2013 Bryant 1,233 - - - -
2014 Bryant 1,320 - - - -​

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The Cowboys have had players exceed 1,000 receiving yards 13 times in the last nine years. 2011 was the only year in which the Cowboys didn't have a single player hit that statistical milestone, although Witten (942), Austin (928), and Robinson (858) all came relatively close.

Minor aside that doesn't show up in these numbers: Since 2007, Jason Witten has logged the second-most receiving yards on the team in every season except 2011, when he led the team in receiving yards.

Back to the original question: How many teams had more 1,000-yard receivers than the Cowboys since 2006?

Not a single one. The Patriots, Packers, and Broncos come closest, with 11 players each; the Colts and Cardinals have ten each. Over the past nine seasons, the Cowboys have almost as many 1,000+ yard receivers as all three NFC East rivals combined: The Giants have seven, the Eagles have five, and the Commanders four. So much for that divisional discussion. Here are the numbers for each team.

1,000-yard receivers, 2006-2014 by team​

Team Receivers Team

Receivers​

Team Receivers

DAL​

13​

CAR

7​

WAS​

4​

DEN​

11​

HOU

7​

CLE​

3​

GNB​

11​

NYG

7​

SFO​

3​

NWE​

11​

TAM

7​

STL​

3​

ARI​

10​

BAL

5​

NYJ​

2​

IND​

10​

BUF

5​

TEN​

2​

ATL​

9​

KAN

5​

MIN​

1​

CIN​

9​

PHI

5​

SEA​

1​

DET​

9​

SDG

5​

JAC​

0​

NOR​

9​

CHI

4​

OAK​

0​

PIT​

8​

MIA

4​

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The common denominator for all 13 of the Cowboys' 1,000-yard receiving seasons is of course Tony Romo, who has produced more such seasons than any other QB in the league over the last nine years.

This year will probably be no different than previous years. Barring injury, Dez Bryant will easily top 1,000 receiving yards, whether he's playing on the franchise tag or with a long-term contract. There's also a chance that Jason Witten (or possibly Terrance Williams) could hit the 1,000-yard mark, because Witten will be Witten, as a Giants fan recently observed:

Witten will still destroy us this year. Actually in a wheelchair in 30 years, Witten will still be open over the middle vs us.

by Nygs0439 on May 7, 2015 | 2:33 PM
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When your opponents know exactly who your main receiving targets are and can't do anything to keep them in check, then you've probably got some very special receivers, or a very special quarterback - and probably a combination of both.

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