With 8 receptions in his latest game, Larry Fitzgerald became the 11th player in NFL history with 1000 receptions and also the youngest (32 and 97 days) to do so. It took him 182 games to reach that milestone? Does it make him the fastest? No. Three players needed less games to make it to 1000 catches.
More than 200 games to get there
Tim Brown, 220 games: Brown played in the NFL from 1988 to 2004, and only one of those seasons, his last, not with the Raiders. He caught 1094 passes for 14934 yards and 100 touchdowns. He caught 80 passes or more in a season nine times in his career, leading the NFL in receptions with 104 in 1997.
Hines Ward, 217 games: Ward played his entire career (1998-2011) with the Steelers, winning two Super Bowls. He caught exactly 1000 passes with six seasons of 80 or more and one season with more than 100 receptions. He has six seasons of over 1000 receiving yards and 85 touchdowns.
Isaac Bruce, 211 games: Bruce caught 1024 passes from 1994 to 2008, playing all but his final two season with the Rams, winning one Super Bowl. He never led the league in receptions, having just four seasons of more than 80 receptions. He did lead the NFL in receiving yards once, with 1338 yards in 1996. He caught 91 passes for touchdowns.
Cris Carter, 209 games: Carter played in the NFL from 1987 to 2002 and is mostly known for playing 12 years in Minnesota, but also played a bit with the Eagles and Dolphins. He has a total of 1101 receptions, including twice catching 122 passes in a season, once leading the league in that category. He has 8 consecutive seasons of 1000 yards or more (1993-2000) and has 130 receiving touchdowns in his career, three times leading the NFL.
Tony Gonzalez, 207 games: The only tight end on this list, Gonzales played in the NFL from 1997 to 2013 for the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons, missing just two games in the process. He has 1325 career receptions, once leading the league with 102. He has four seasons of more than 1000 yards and has caught 111 touchdown passes in his career.
Terrell Owens, 204 games: Owens played in the NFL from 1996 to 2010 for the 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys, Bills and Bengals. He caught 1078 passes for 15934 yards and 153 touchdowns. Six times in his career he had 80 receptions or more in a season, including one season of 100 catches. He led the league in touchdown receptions three times. And on to the quicker ones…
Reggie Wayne, 195 games
Wayne played with the Indianapolis Colts from 2001 to 2014, getting Peyton Manning to throw passes at him for 11 of those seasons. He has 1070 career receptions, including 7 seasons of 80 or more and three seasons with more than 100. He has 82 career touchdowns and eight seasons of more than 1000 receiving yards, leading the league in that category once, in 2007. He’s a one-time Super Bowl champion.
Larry Fitzgerald, 182 games
Fitzgerald, one of two active players on this list, has been his entire career with the Arizona Cardinals since being drafted in 2004. He has exactly 1000 career receptions to go along with 96 touchdowns, leading the NFL in that category twice. He also has seven seasons (including 2015) with 1000 receiving yards or more.
Jerry Rice, 181 games
Stick’um or no, pretty much every receiving record in the book is owned by Rice, who played in the NFL from 1985 to 2004, with people trying to forget about the years in Seattle and Oakland. He has four seasons of more than 100 receptions, 14 seasons of more than 1000 receiving yards and a total of 197 receiving touchdowns. He led the league in receptions twice, touchdowns six times and receiving yards six times as well. He won the Super Bowl with the Niners three times.
Andre Johnson, 168 games
Johnson, in the league since 2003, is playing this year for the first time for someone other than the Houston Texans. He has 1040 career receptions, getting to 1000 while still with Houston, in 2014. He has five season with more than 100 receptions, leading the league in that category twice. He has seven seasons of 1000 yards or more, leading the NFL in that twice, but has never caught more than nine touchdowns in a season, so far with 67 in his career.
Marvin Harrison, 167 games
Harrison is another player who spent most of his career getting thrown at by Peyton Manning, which helps a lot. He has 1102 receptions from 1996 to 2008 with four consecutive seasons (1999-2002) with more than 100 receptions, including 143 in 2002. He has 8 seasons of more than 1000 yards (1999-2006), leading the NFL twice, and has 128 receiving touchdowns. He won the Super Bowl once.
If, and only if, you’re interested in the players fastest to reach 50 career touchdowns (Jerry Rice is there too!), you might wanna check this out.