Packers: Top five wide receivers in franchise history

1. Don Hutson

For 40 years, one man sat alone on top of the Packers receiving record books. What makes that even more impressive is he put up these numbers in a time when three yards and a cloud of dust wasn’t just the playbook, it was pretty much the entire game.

That man was Don Hutson.

Huston played from 1935 to 1945 when teams weren’t keen on passing the ball. Most teams would call almost exclusively run plays and play defense and win games 13-9 or rarely score 20 points in a game. Passing was seen as more of a gimmick than actual necessity.

For example, Hutson’s first catch in the NFL was an 83-yard touchdown, the only touchdown scored in the game and the final score was 7-0. Hutson would go on to lead the league in touchdown receptions that year with six and would go on to lead the NFL nine times out of the 11 years he played in the NFL.

To put it into modern terms, Hutson was more dominant than Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, or Antonio Brown in his time.

Hutson finished his career with 488 receptions for 7,991 yards and 99 touchdowns, which is still a Packers team record. What might be more impressive is Hutson only had one fumble in his career.

Hutson wasn’t just a split end (wide receiver), he also kicked extra points for eight of his 11 years on the Packers while also performing some kicking duties.

It was a different time then but there’s no denying the impact Hutson has had on the NFL and the fact that even through Favre and Rodgers, with Robert Brooks, Sharpe, Nelson, Driver, Lofton, Antonio Freeman and countless others playing in Green Bay, Hutson is still 30 touchdowns ahead of the next person on the list (Nelson, 69).