Building A GGN All Time Jets Team: Wide Receiver

We have the 47th position filled on the GGN All Time Jets Team. The winner of the first vote at Wide Receiver is: Don Maynard!

Don Maynard was the first player ever signed by the New York Titans, who later became the Jets, in 1960. The first Jet may well be the best player ever to wear the uniform. Maynard played 15 seasons in the AFL/NFL, 12 for the Jets. When he finally hung up his spikes after the 1973 season Maynard was the all time leader in professional football in receptions and receiving yards. To this day Maynard is the Jets’ all time leader among receivers in games played, receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He teamed with Art Powell on the Titans to become the first tandem of 1000 yard receivers in pro football history. Maynard led the league in touchdowns in 1965, in receiving yards in 1967, and in receiving yards per game in 1967 and 1968. He had a total of nine seasons in the top 10 in receiving yards, ten seasons in the top 10 in receiving touchdowns. He earned Pro Bowl honors four times and first team All Pro honors once. Maynard is still 13th all time in receiving touchdowns. He was named to the All Time AFL team and is a member of the Hall of Fame. In short, Don Maynard is not only the first Jet, he may well be the best Jet ever.

From now until mid July I’ll be putting up a daily poll asking GGN to vote on the best Jets players of all time. The idea here is to build a 55 man roster of the best players ever to wear the Green and White. The roster will consist of 26 offensive players, 26 defensive players, and three special team players.

OFFENSE

Quarterback: 3

WIDE RECEIVER: 6

DON MAYNARD

RUNNING BACK

CURTIS MARTIN

FREEMAN MCNEIL

EMERSON BOOZER

MATT SNELL

TIGHT END

MICKEY SHULER

RICH CASTER

JEROME BARKUM

OFFENSIVE TACKLE

WINSTON HILL

D’BRICKASHAW FERGUSON

MARVIN POWELL

JASON FABINI

INTERIOR OFFENSIVE LINE

KEVIN MAWAE

NICK MANGOLD

RANDY RASMUSSEN

JOE FIELDS

DAVE HERMAN

JIM SWEENEY

DEFENSE

SAFETY

JAMAL ADAMS

VICTOR GREEN

KERRY RHODES

ERIK MCMILLAN

CORNERBACK

DARRELLE REVIS

AARON GLENN

JAMES HASTY

ANTONIO CROMARTIE

JOHNNY SAMPLE

BOBBY JACKSON

LINEBACKER

DAVID HARRIS

LARRY GRANTHAM

MARVIN JONES

LANCE MEHL

KYLE CLIFTON

GREG BUTTLE

EDGE

MARK GASTINEAU

JOHN ABRAHAM

GERRY PHILBIN

SHAUN ELLIS

MO LEWIS

INTERIOR DEFENSIVE LINE

JOE KLECKO

MARTY LYONS

DAMON HARRISON

JOHN ELLIOTT

ABDUL SALAAM

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicker

PAT LEAHY

Punter

TOM TUPA

Returner

LEON WASHINGTON

Every day I will be putting up a poll at one position. The choices will be limited to players who were on the Jets roster for at least three seasons. I will not be including players who were great for other teams but not great for the Jets (for example, guys like Matt Forte or LaDainian Tomlinson will not be included in the polls, though both those guys would be excluded for not meeting the three year rule as well). Each day we will close the previous day’s poll and the candidate with the most votes will be added to the GGN All Time Jets Team. In the event of a tie vote both players will be added to the team.

In the event I have made an egregious omission and a name you think should be on the poll is not there you can write in candidates in the comments section. If a player gets support in the comments section I’ll add him to the next day’s poll.

So let’s get to it. Today we continue to vote for wide receivers. Who will it be? Vote early, vote often, and let’s hear who you think are the best players ever to have played for the New York Jets.