The 33rd Team put out a list of the 11 best wide receiver duos of all time, and Lynn Swann and John Stallworth made the list for the Pittsburgh Steelers, coming in as the 8th-best duo.
“It’s hard to put either one of these guys ahead of the other,” Elliot Kalb wrote. “If you’re having trouble separating them in your mind, here’s a trick. It was Stallworth who scored the winning touchdown on a 73-yard reception in Super Bowl XIV against the Rams. It was Swann that was MVP of Super Bowl X over the Cowboys, when he caught four passes for 161 yards, including a spectacular 64-yard catch and run that produced the winning touchdown.”
Both Swann and Stallworth are in the Hall of Fame, and each of them won four Super Bowls with the Steelers. They’re also each Hall of Fame receivers, making an impact for Pittsburgh and surely putting them among one of the best duos of all time. They came in ahead of the Philadelphia Eagles’ current duo of AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, the Miami Dolphins’ current duo of Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, and the St. Louis Rams duo in the 2000s of Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce.
While I’m glad that Stallworth and Swann got their respect, I felt there was a lot of receny bias on the list. I’m not sure one year of the Smith-Brown pairing or Waddle-Hill pairing is enough to consider them among the greatest duos of all-time. If the list was specific to certain seasons, I’d understand a little bit more. But one season of production out of a wide receiver duo doesn’t necessarily make it an all-time great one.
The only other modern-day pairing on the list was the Cincinnati Bengals duo of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, which checked in at No. 5. That feels a little bit high to me, but Kalb seemed to bank it on the potential future production given that Chase is only 23 and Higgins is 24.
But again, I just don’t see them as an all-time great duo, especially when they’re being placed ahead of two Hall of Famers in Swann and Stallworth and another talented duo in Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, both of whom were productive for longer than just the two seasons that Chase and Higgins have been together.
The top pairing on the list was Randy Moss and Cris Carter with the Minnesota Vikings, while the San Francisco 49ers Jerry Rice/John Taylor duo edged out the New England Patriots Randy Moss/Wes Welker dominant duo from 2007-09.
Of all the duos listed, Swann and Stallworth had the most team success, and I think both of them would much rather have four Super Bowls than a few more yards or touchdowns to Pro Bowls to put them higher on a list.
At the end of the day, Swann and Stallworth were incredibly successful football players and both Hall of Famers with four Super Bowls. They’re Steelers legends, and will always be remembered for the work they did to help Pittsburgh become a dynasty.
