Santana Moss is one of the NFL’s most under-appreciated greats

Santana Moss is beloved by Washington Redskins fans but under-appreciated in the NFL.

The Washington Redskins have been one of the more embarrassing franchises since 2000. They seem to be a lot closer to the bottom of the standings than they are to the top nearly every year. Sure, there were the oddball fun years. But were they ever serious Super Bowl contenders? Maybe once or twice — but even then, they never even got very far.

Due to that, they have had some players that do not get the appreciation they deserve. One of the worst cases of this happened to Santana Moss. Moss absolutely gets love from fans of the Redskins. We’re not here to pretend like Washington fans don’t love and appreciate the wide receiver.

That being said, what about the average fans? What about fans of teams that are not the Redskins? Do they really understand just how good Moss is? The answer is a pretty simple “no” if you ask me. First, let’s look at the numbers.

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In his career, Moss accrued 732 receptions (44th all-time) for 10,283 yards (44th all-time) and 66 touchdowns (54th all-time). Just looking off those numbers, there is a pretty clear argument to put Moss in the top-50 receivers of all-time, right?

Well what about the help? What about his fellow weapons and the quarterbacks throwing him the football? In his four years with the New York Jets, Moss had Vinny Testaverde, Chad Pennington and Quincy Carter as his main quarterbacks. Outside of Pennington, no one there is really making their weapons much better. And Pennington had injury and consistency issues to deal with.

The running back was Curtis Martin — that’s big. Martin was a monster. But the other receivers were hit-and-miss. Laveranues Coles was there for two years. He was great. But was only there when Moss was getting his feet wet. Funnily enough, he went to the Redskins, who then traded Cole for Moss a few years later.

Wayne Chrebet, Anthony Becht, Curtis Conway and Justin McCareins were the other options. Nothing to go crazy about. Moss was the clear standout.

Then you go to the Washington Redskins. This is where it gets pretty ugly for a while. Mark Brunell at the end of his career (although that was a very good year from the quarterback) started in the receivers’ first year in Washington. Then he got a mix of Brunell and a rookie Jason Campbell in year two.

Campbell was his main quarterback in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Journeyman backup Todd Collins had some playing time in there as well. The Redskins then moved on to Donovan McNabb for a year. Remember that miserable season? Rex Grossman also got a little time at the end of the year. Then Grossman and John Beck took over in 2011 (that was disastrous).

Robert Griffin III was the guy in 2012 and was absolutely the best quarterback Moss had since Brunell in year one with the Redskins. However, Griffin III split time the next two years with Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy and those two years were far from great.

So RGIII and Brunell were great for one year each. Then Jason Campbell was easily his second-best quarterback with the Redskins. And yes, I’m a Campbell believer. He did not have an easy run of things with all the changes made around him constantly. But still, let’s not pretend like Campbell and that team as one of your best with Washington is a good thing.

As far as the other weapons go, he was in Washington for too long to name all of the fellow options. However, there was a while when there was very little outside of Moss.

So what did Moss do in his 10 years with the Redskins? How about six years of 55-plus receptions and nine years of 40-plus. Nine years of 450-plus yards and six years of 750-plus. That included three 1,000-yard seasons, one that saw him rack up an incredible 1,483 yards.

Moss was a constant on a bad team with at times no quarterback play and very few weapons. Often, it was a simple game plan for an opposing defense. Stop Moss and you’ve stopped the Washington offense. However, teams tended to struggle at containing the receiver.

It’s very hard to put up the numbers Moss did in his career. However, it’s near impossible to do it with the cards he was dealt. This article is not meant to bash Washington or any of the players on that team during Moss’ tenure. What it does, though, is point out the greatness of the wide receiver.

He won’t make the Hall of Fame. He won’t even be remembered by many outside of Redskins’ Nation as anything other than a “good” receiver. Don’t let that tarnish the legacy though. Santana Moss was consistently one of the best receivers in football for an eight-year stretch at one point. And had some strong seasons at the beginning and end of his career, proving he could always go.

Whether it was with the New York Jets, or the Washington Redskins, he was great. Easily one of the most under-appreciated players in NFL history, at least fans of the two teams he was with seem to understand just how good Santana Moss was.