Top 10 TXHSFB Wide Receivers Ever

A disclaimer before we begin: This is an extremely fun but totally impossible task. There are about 30 guys who don’t just have a case to be in the top 10, but you have every right to be actively mad that they weren’t included in the top 10. And if you are, be sure to take all complaints to the Dave Campbell’s social media pages. Tell them Carter Yates’s absurd, borderline-irresponsible list sent you.

 

Check out our list of the Top 10 TXHSFB Quarterbacks.
Check out our list of the Top 10 TXHSFB Running Backs.

 

Honorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order):

Clifford Branch Jr. (Houston Worthing, 1964-65): One of TXHSFB's first deep threats, a world-class speedster who earned back-to-back All-District selections at Houston Worthing before a Hall of Fame NFL Career with the Oakland Raiders.

Lawrence "Larry" Elkins (Brownwood, 1960): A trail-blazing wide receiver on Gordon Wood's first state championship team at Brownwood.

Jake Oliver (Dallas Jesuit, 2010-12): At the time of his graduation, was the state's all-time leader with 286 receptions. Also racked up 4,293 career yards and 54 touchdowns.

Roy Williams (Odessa Permian, 1997-99): A star wide receiver at a blue-blood program with 2,319 yards over three seasons. Narrowly edged out by another wide receiver from Texas's 2000 recruiting class.

Garrett Wilson (Lake Travis, 2015-18): Played for three state championships at Lake Travis and finished his career with 3,639 yards and 57 touchdowns.

James Washington (Stamford, 2010-13): The Class 2A record holder with 61 touchdowns in a four-year career at Stamford. Star on back-to-back state championship teams.

10. Dakorien Moore (Duncanville, 2021-24)

In a similar vein to Kaegan Ash being ranked the No.10 all-time running back despite setting the state’s career rushing record just this past year, I believe recency bias actually hurts Dakorien Moore. 

I know I have constantly repeated that this list is based solely on high school production, not college or professional careers, which is why players like Vince Young and Adrian Peterson were controversially left off. But, if I’m being honest, it’s impossible to not be a little biased toward the players who went on to All-Pro careers. Let’s say Dakorien Moore goes on to become a college All-American and an NFL Pro Bowler (he already started seven games as a true freshman at Oregon). People will look back at this list and say he was criminally underrated.

Moore is the best receiver to play for the Duncanville dynasty, finishing his career with 4,113 yards. The next closest is Ayson Theus at 2,320. Moore was also part of three state championship appearances, winning back-to-back titles as a sophomore (2022) and junior (2023). He was one of the elite players whose recruiting status (the consensus No.1 overall wide receiver recruit in the Class of 2025) matched his on-field production.

Post TXHSFB Career: Moore was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection as a freshman at Oregon. Despite missing four games due to injury, he finished fifth in school history for receiving yards by a freshman with 497.

9. Dez Bryant (Lufkin, 2005-06)

The only reason Dez Bryant isn’t higher on this list is that we didn’t have enough time to watch him at Lufkin. The Panthers went 25-2 in the two years Bryant played, reaching the state semifinals in his junior year before a shocking second-round playoff upset his senior year. But what Bryant did in his allotted time makes him a Top 10 wide receiver in TXHSFB history: 101 receptions, 2,232 yards, and 37 touchdowns. 

You could argue that a player like Lake Travis’s Garrett Wilson should be included on this list over Bryant because of his superior stats. But Bryant played in a different era. Lufkin was not a spread team like Lake Travis. And, the true measure of Bryant’s impact was the hushed, revered tones his name was invoked in a decade later. In the 2016 season, Richmond Foster star CeeDee Lamb racked up 2,000 yards in one season (more on this later), and the highest compliment anyone could give was, “He’s the next Dez.” Little did they know that Lamb would play for the Dallas Cowboys and don the No. 88 just like Bryant.

Post TXHSFB Career: Bryant’s life is the ultimate success story. Raised by a single, oft-imprisoned mother who sold drugs to provide for her family, Bryant, with the help of legendary Lufkin head coach John Outlaw, overcame an unstable home life and a significant learning disorder to become NCAA eligible by the end of his senior year. After most colleges backed off his recruitment due to his academic struggles, Bryant committed to Oklahoma State and became an All-American. Bryant was selected in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys and became one of the most iconic wide receivers in franchise history for his ‘Throw up the X’ celebration. He made three Pro Bowls in his career before retiring after the 2020 season. His son, Dez Bryant Jr., is a rising junior at Southlake Carroll High School.

8. BJ Johnson (South Grand Prairie, 1997-99)

I know that seeing Odessa Permian’s Roy Williams as an honorable mention ticked off a lot of people. Hopefully, you’ve stuck with me to see BJ Johnson’s inclusion. Johnson and Williams were part of the same recruiting class at Texas. While Williams had the more prolific college and professional career, Johnson was the better high school player.

South Grand Prairie has played football since 1964, and Johnson was the star of the two best teams in program history. As a junior in 1998, Johnson took 20 of his 43 receptions to the house, leading the Warriors to the regional final. His senior year was even better, as Johnson’s 71 catches for 1,749 yards and 13 touchdowns helped South Grand Prairie to its only state semifinal in program history.

Post TXHSFB Career: Johnson entered the Forty Acres as part of the most hyped receiver trio in program history with the aforementioned Williams and Klein’s Sloan Thomas. Johnson became the first freshman wide receiver to start from Day One since 1992, and set a single-game freshman record with nine catches for 168 yards against Baylor. While Williams became the WR1, Johnson had 2,389 yards and 16 touchdowns over four seasons.

After unknowingly playing his senior season with a stress fracture in his left tibia, Johnson was forced to miss the NFL Combine and Pro Day workouts. He ultimately went undrafted and played two NFL seasons. Johnson is now a successful entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder of MVP Vodka, the COO of the public affairs firm JBJ Management, and the CEO of J Imperium, LLC, a concrete supplier in the DFW area.

7. CeeDee Lamb (Richmond Foster, 2014-16)

Lamb’s high school coach, Shaun McDowell, described Lamb’s game as playing in the matrix. He saw things on the football field before they happened, and could contort his body any way he needed to make a catch. 

Richmond Foster has played 24 seasons. Lamb was the star wide receiver on two of the three teams that have won at least ten games. As a junior sharing targets with Evan Fairs, Lamb had 52 catches for 1,082 yards and 11 touchdowns on a 10-3 team. But he’s on this list because of his monstrous senior season. Lamb became one of 11 players in state history to cross the 2,000-yard mark, finishing with 98 catches for 2,032 yards and 33 touchdowns. Richmond Foster went 14-1 that year, by far the best season in program history. Lamb earned the Houston Touchdown Club Offensive Player of the Year that season.

Post TXHSFB Career: Lamb became an All-American wide receiver at the University of Oklahoma, ranking first in school history with 24 career catches of at least 40 yards and six career games of at least 160 receiving yards. In his final two seasons, he had over 1,100 yards and over 1,300 yards, respectively. 

Lamb was drafted in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys and immediately given the revered No.88 jersey. That number is an honor – but also a responsibility. Lamb has lived up to the hype, earning five Pro Bowl nods in six years. He’s also crossed the 1,000-yard threshold in five of six seasons. The one narrow miss was 935 yards in his rookie year.

6. Cody Cardwell (Stephenville, 1996-98)

11 players have surpassed 2,000 receiving yards in TXHSFB history. Stephenville’s Cody Cardwell is the only one to do so in the 20th century. His 2,427 yards (on 112 catches with 25 touchdowns, no less) in Stephenville’s 1998 state championship season rank second in state history. He is the most prolific wide receiver from the Art Briles-era at Stephenville that revolutionized TXHSFB offenses. In three varsity seasons from 1996-98, Cardwell racked up 4,241 yards and 48 touchdowns. Among the top 32 career receiving yards leaders in state history, Cardwell is the only one who played before 2000.

I know some people will wonder why Cardwell ranks ahead of CeeDee Lamb. It’s because, while both had 2,000-yard senior seasons, Cardwell’s junior year was superior. Cardwell had 1,463 yards compared to Lamb’s 1,082.

Post TXHSFB Career: Cardwell attended SMU with high school teammate and Dave Campbell’s “Quarterback of the 1990s”, Kelan Luker. He played four years for the Mustangs from 1999-02, finishing his career with 116 receptions for 1,534 yards and seven touchdowns.

5. Jermaine Bishop Jr. (Willis, 2022-25)

I’m not being a prisoner of the moment because Jermaine Bishop just won Mr. Texas Football – I think Bishop may be the best overall football player on this list. Bishop was TXHSFB’s Travis Hunter: a three-phase playmaker at wide receiver, defensive back, and return specialist. He was the District Defensive Newcomer of the Year as a freshman secondary player at the 6A level. He earned District Utility Player of the Year as a sophomore. Then, he was the back-to-back District MVP as a junior and senior.

But because we only judge wide receiver production on this list, Bishop is only a Top 10 overall wide receiver and not the first player listed. I know, a tragedy. Bishop is the Houston area’s all-time leading receiver with 4,925 career receiving yards and 55 career touchdowns. As a senior, Bishop led Willis to its first regional final since the school began playing varsity football in 1928.  

Post TXHSFB Career: Bishop signed to play for the University of Texas.

4. Tren'Davian Dickson (Navasota, 2013-15)

Tren’Davian Dickson may be fourth on this list, but I think he has a case for the single-best season from any wide receiver in TXHSFB history (I know, we’ll get to Marvin Mims’s state-record 2,629 yards in the 2019 season soon). 

As a junior in 2014, Dickson set a national record with 39 receiving touchdowns (he also had 2,165 yards), leading Navasota to a state championship over Argyle. That season is such a masterpiece because he saved his best game for the biggest stage. Dickson had four touchdown catches, two of which came in overtime, to seal the win.

Dickson still holds the state record for 76 touchdown catches in his career, leading Navasota to a 38-3 record with a state championship win over three seasons. The craziest part – some Navasota coaches still say he was a better basketball player. Dickson had legitimate scholarship interest from Rice, Boise State, and TCU, but ultimately chose to play football at Baylor.

Post TXHSFB Career: Dickson is one of the biggest what-if stories in TXHSFB. He enrolled early for spring football practice at Baylor in 2016. Weeks later, the first reports surfaced about Baylor’s systemic failure to investigate multiple sexual assault allegations. After Coach Art Briles resigned, Dickson chose to transfer to the University of Houston. But while his waiver for immediate eligibility was still up in the air, Dickson abruptly left the team. Two years later, Dickson resurfaced at Texas Southern, where he had 1,233 yards and 10 touchdowns over two seasons. Dickson is now a father of two living in Navasota. He does electrical work for Champion Homes.

3. Jordan Shipley (Rotan, 2000 & Burnet, 2001-03)

By the time Jordan Shipley graduated from Burnet High School, he was the state’s leader in career receptions (264), receiving yards (5,424), and receiving touchdowns (73). Some of those records have been narrowly surpassed in the 20-plus seasons since. Marvin Mims has 61 more career yards, and Tren’Davian Dickson has three more career touchdowns. But Shipley remains a legendary figure because his career stats still remain among the best in the state, despite the sport’s shift to the spread and Air Raid over the last two decades. Not only is Shipley second all-time in career yards, but he’s also the only player pre-2011 in the top 10 for career receptions. Not only is he second all-time in career touchdowns, but he is also the only player from before 2010 in the top 17. Not bad for a guy who played quarterback his freshman year before moving to wide receiver to make way for future Texas A&M star Stephen McGee. I think it worked out for all parties.

Post TXHSFB Career: After leading Burnet to back-to-back state championship appearances, Shipley chose to attend the University of Texas over Texas Tech. A knee injury in 2004 and a torn hamstring in 2005 threatened to derail his college career before it began. Texas coach Mack Brown even told Shipley they’d still honor his scholarship if he wanted to medically retire. But Shipley stayed the course and rewrote the Texas record books, becoming the program’s all-time leader in career receptions (248) and yards in a season (1,485 in 2009) and most touchdown receptions in a season (13 in 2009). 

Shipley was drafted in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He played three NFL seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jacksonville Jaguars, but he never fully recovered from a 2011 ACL tear. 

Since retiring in 2014, Shipley has co-hosted The Bucks of Tecomate on the Outdoor Channel and served as an analyst on the Longhorn Network’s Texas GameDay.

2. Marvin Mims (Frisco Lone Star, 2017-19)

I know what you’re thinking: how do you put Marvin Mims ahead of Jordan Shipley when Shipley is ahead of Mims in the UIL 11-man football record books in both career yards (5,424 to 4,962) and career touchdowns (73 to 58)? Well, a couple of reasons.

For one, Mims is only behind Shipley in career receiving yards because his freshman season at Frisco Legacy Christian Academy is not factored into the record book. When you apply his 523 yards from that season, he moves ahead of Shipley in the all-time rankings (5,485 to 5,424). Mims is both the national career yardage leader and the single-season yardage leader in TXHSFB history with 2,629 yards as a senior in 2019. You could argue that Mims’s freshman season shouldn’t be added in, but my rebuttal is that Shipley had a similar career trajectory. He played his freshman season at Class 1A Rotan before moving with his father, head coach Bob Shipley, to Class 3A Burnet. Put Mims in Class 2A football as a freshman, and he does similar, if not better, than the numbers he put up at Legacy Christian. 

But even if we factor in Mims’s four touchdowns from his freshman season, he’s still behind Shipley in the career rankings, 73 to 62. But Shipley played in 54 total games in his high school career compared to Mims’s 51. When you break it down on a per-game basis, Shipley had 1.4 touchdowns per game compared to Mims’s 1.2 touchdowns per game. We’re splitting hairs here, and I’d argue Shipley playing at Class 3A Burnet (now Class 4A) while Mims played Class 5A could explain the difference.

You can also argue that Shipley played in more games because his teams were more successful, and therefore, he should be ranked higher. Shipley went 46-8 over his career with two state championship appearances, while Mims went 36-6 over his UIL career with one state semifinal appearance. And if they were both quarterbacks, I would rank Shipley higher. But wide receivers are dependent on their quarterback. Shipley made those state championship games with Stephen McGee at quarterback. McGee went on to star at Texas A&M and play four seasons in the NFL. Mims had a different quarterback in each of his three seasons at Frisco Lone Star. And while MJ Rivers, Julian Larry, and Garret Rangel were all excellent high school football quarterbacks, none have or will play in the NFL.

Post TXHSFB Career: After becoming the only wide receiver to ever win Mr. Texas Football in 2019, Mims went on to similar success at the University of Oklahoma. In three years on campus, Mims led the Sooners every year in receiving yards, finishing with 2,398 yards and 20 touchdowns over his career. Mims was drafted in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft and has made two Pro Bowls in his young career.

1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Rockwall, 2016-19)

Picking Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jordan Shipley, and Marvin Mims as the top three wide receivers in the history of Texas high school football was fairly easy. I believe those three are in a class of their own. Tren’Davian Dickson is a more distant fourth. Then, there’s a wide gap between Dickson and 5-10. But ranking Smith-Njigba, Shipley, and Mims was excruciating. You could give me the case for each guy being No.1, and I’d probably agree.

Allow me to prove my point for Jaxon Smith-Njigba 8 Mile style – I know everything you’ve got to say against him. Smith-Njigba’s 5,403 career receiving yards are behind both Mims (5,485) and Shipley (5,424). But that is largely because Smith-Njigba played 6A varsity football as a freshman and had just over 100 yards receiving that year. Shipley, meanwhile, played at Class 1A Rotan as a freshman before moving with his father to Class 3A Burnet for his final three years. Mims played his freshman year at Frisco Legacy Christian Private School before moving to Class 5A Frisco Lone Star. Had Smith-Njigba played private school or Class 1A ball his freshman year, he’s the all-time leader.

Shipley and Mims also had better UIL team records than Smith-Njigba. Shipley went 46-8 with two state championship appearances in four UIL seasons. Mims went 36-6 with a state semifinal appearance in three years. Smith-Njigba went 32-18 with one state semifinal appearance in four years (although, again, he barely played his freshman season when Rockwall went 6-6). And if they’d all played quarterback, I’d have ranked Smith-Njigba third. But wide receivers cannot win teams a game nearly single-handedly like a quarterback or even running back can. Shipley had future Texas A&M star and NFL quarterback Stephen McGee on his high school team, which is absurd for that level. Mims played on the same team as future NFL players like Nick Bolton, Trey Taylor, and Jaylan Ford. Besides, Smith-Njigba always played his best in the biggest games. In the 2018 first-round playoff game against the Allen dynasty, Smith-Njigba had 267 receiving yards in a 52-40 loss. In the 2019 season opener against three-time defending state champion Highland Park, he had 311 receiving yards in a 66-59 loss. And, in perhaps his greatest performance ever, Smith-Njigba had 253 yards and five touchdown catches in a 2019 second-round win against Allen at AT&T Stadium. And another note – Shipley’s team dominance means he played 54 UIL games compared to Smith-Njigba’s 50. That means Smith-Njigba had 108.06 yards per game in his career compared to Shipley’s 100.44.

I’ll even admit Marvin Mims has an ultra-compelling case against Smith-Njigba. The two have been forever joined at the hip, compared against each other, since they had historic 2019 seasons just 45 miles apart. Mims set the Texas high school record with 2,629 yards in a single season, while Smith-Njigba had 2,161 yards and a DFW touchdown record with 35 receiving touchdowns. Guess what? Dave Campbell’s even awarded Mims the Mr. Texas Football crown over Smith-Njigba. But that was a single-season award. This is a career award. Again, let’s take the freshman year when Mims was in private school, and Smith-Njigba was a freshman buried on a 6A depth chart out of the equation. Not only does Smith-Njigba have more total yards – 5,295 compared to Mims’s 4,962 – he also did it in 38 games compared to Mims’s 42 games. Smith-Njigba also has 63 touchdowns compared to Mims’s 58.

Post TXHSFB Career: These greatest of all-time lists at quarterback and running back both set the internet ablaze. I knew they would. Everyone has a different ranking – and everyone is passionate about why their ranking is correct. But I believe a lot of the gripe with my list stems from people being confused about how I’m defining “greatness.” Sure, some people know exactly how I’m grading and just think I’m dumb. But players such as Vince Young and Adrian Peterson narrowly miss my list for two reasons. One, these lists are based on high school careers in a vacuum, not who went on to win a national championship or become an NFL Hall of Famer. Two, I don’t define greatness by recruiting rankings or talent. I define it based on high school production.

All of this to say, Smith-Njigba is the first guy who I’ve ranked as the best high school player, who was also a five-star, who also set Ohio State single-season records with 95 catches and 1,606 receiving yards, who also was a First Round NFL Draft Pick, who also became an All-Pro and Super Bowl champion in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. At every stage of his career, Jaxon Smith-Njigba has been the best wide receiver in the league.