Terrell Owens recently caught his 150th touchdown pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers, joining an elite group of wide receivers in that magical 150 TD club. Currently, there are only 3 WRs with 150 or more touchdowns in their careers, Jerry Rice, with 197, Randy Moss with 153, and now, Mr. Terrell Owens, with 151.

With his 150th TD, he also has 15,721 yards receiving, more than Isaac Bruce and Marvin Harrison, which ranks 2nd on the all time list. He also boasts 1,061 receptions, which put him at 5th, past receiving greats Art Monk, Randy Moss and Torry Holt.

Owens has been a reliable receiver, for 15 seasons but also had more than his share of team troubles, recently saying on his reality show that he understood Washington's decision to pull McNabb, in his recent game. He has run his course through 5 teams, playing with the San Francisco 49ers, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys, the Buffalo Bills (at which point no one was sure anyone was going to pick him up), and then this year with the Cincinnati Bengals, who picked him up very late in the summer.

Owens is putting together one of his most productive seasons of his career, with 770 yards, and 7 TDs, he is on pace for 1540 yards and 14 TDs, which would be a career high in yards in a season. And Owens, even at 36 years old, has shown no signs of slowing down. He’s in outstanding shape, and appears he can play at a high level for another 3-4 more years. Jerry Rice played til the age of 42, granted, he was not a WR1 anymore, as his game obviously slowed down, by that time. Rice at Terrell’s age put up numbers of 1157 yards and 9 TDs with the Niners. So I can definitely see Owens possibly challenge the 197 TDs of Jerry.

Owens was thrilled to be matched up on the outside with his off field bud, Chad Ochocinco, another of whom has an off the wall personality of sorts with his showy style, but the Bengals are only 2-6. Owens has been known to get a bit off track when his team isn’t playing as well as anticipated, or even when he isn’t getting the balls thrown his way as much as he may felt they should be. So can he continue to stay motivated this season in Cincinnati?

But, overall, has he done enough to be in the ranks of the all time greats, like Cris Carter, Steve Largent and Tim Brown? Personally, I feel Owens has done more than enough to clearly deserve his name into the hall of fame when he wraps it up. I also think he can make a run for the legendary Jerry Rice’s numbers for TD’s. If, Owens finished the season with the production predicted, and plays another 6 years, like Jerry, he would need 39 more scores in that time. That’s only 6.5 TDs a season, which I think is feasible. Of course, the question remains, with what team, and how many more? Because this certainly could be the last stop for the problematic Owens in his career.

The biggest difficulty has been Owens himself, if he could learn anything from Jerry Rice; it should be to play with class and style; you can be the best, without running your mouth, screaming at quarterbacks, let your game do all the talking. That’s certainly what Jerry did.
 

Click here to view all of Mike Anthony's premium picks.

Social Bookmarking