NFL receiving triple crown winners: from most dominant to least dominant
A ranking of the 17 receiving triple crown winners in NFL history and their gap above 2nd place
Ja’Marr Chase finish the 2024 season leading the NFL in catches (127), receiving yards (1,708) and receiving touchdowns (17), becoming the 13th player in NFL history to win the receiving Triple Crown. Before Chase, Cooper Kupp was the most recent player to achieve the Triple Crown in 2021 with a stat line of 145 rec, 1947 yards, 16 TDs. It has been done 17 times, Don Hutson accomplished this five times between 1936–1944.
How far ahead of the competition was Chase in each of the three receiving categories? If you look at the blended % for all three categories, Chase was 18% above the runner-up, the same % as Cooper Kupp in 2021.
How do Chase and Kupp’s blended % compare to the other fifteen triple crowns in NFL history? The table below shows every triple crown winner starting with the Giants’ Ray Flaherty in 1932, to Don Hutson’s insane dominance over the league in the late 1930s to mid 1940s, and ending with Chase in 2024.
The table shows the stats for each triple crown winner, the second-place totals for the three statistical categories, the % gaps for each category, and the blended gap across all three categories. The data is segmented by three eras for additional context: pre-integration, pre-merger, and post-merger.
Don Hutson was by far the most dominant season-to-season player in terms of the number of triple crowns and the gaps between him and the rest of the league. Hutson owns 33% of all triple crowns in NFL history, and his blended % gaps range from +43% to +133% making up 5 of the top 6 gaps on the list. It has to be mentioned that Hutson played in an era when black players weren’t allowed, and for many of his years the league was thinned out even further because some players were off to war.
Elroy Hirsch, aka “Crazy Legs”, has the most dominant season after the league integrated. His triple crown in 1951 with 66 receptions, 1495 yards, and 17 touchdowns (in 12 games) towered over the runner up, particularly in yards where the player in second place, Gordie Soltau, had 826 yards.
Jerry Rice holds the largest blended gap (+23%) post-merger with 100 receptions, 1502 yards, and 13 catches. +12% is the average triple crown gap for the other four post-merger triple crown winners.
What about the least dominant players to win one of the most dominant titles, the triple crown? The worst Hall of Famer is still a HOFer. Tyler Huntley will always be a pro bowler. The one who graduates last in med school is still called doctor…and also famously provides us with the same uncreative example to mention in scenarios like this one. And like HOFers, pro-bowlers, and doctors, the least convincing triple crown winners are still history-makers and triple crown winners just the same as the most dominant ones. Pete Pihos of the Eagles in 1953 achieved the triple crown with one more catch than 2nd place (63 vs 62) and a tie in touchdowns (10). He won the triple crown with a blended gap of +4%. But the lowest of all was Steve Smith Sr. in 2005 for the Panthers. Smith’s 103 receptions were tied by Larry Fitzgerald, and his 12 touchdowns were tied by Marvin Harrison. Smith edged out Santana Moss on yards by only 5%. All of this netted to a +1.8% blended triple crown gap for Smith.
The chart below sorts all 13 triple crown winners and 17 triple crown instances from the most to least dominant. Data is shaded with the light grey for pre-integration, dark grey for pre-merger, and black for post-merger.
Sources: pro football reference, Wikipedia
