Art of receiving really is nothing new

making catches that would appear to have no chance of being inbounds. Their talents are not only being copied, they’re being taught on a daily basis by wide receiver coaches around the NFL, most especially by the Steelers’ Richard Mann, who stresses the art of the footdrag to his unit.

“He had six or seven type of drills — catching it over your right eyeball, catching it over your left eyeball, dragging your left foot, dragging your right foot,” Gruden said of Mann, who was his position coach for seven years at Tampa Bay. “He wore the JUGS machine out.”

But two wide receivers — one already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, another destined to be there — said the art of sideline catches is nothing new, maybe not even more advanced.

“I wouldn’t say better,” said Fitzgerald, a former Pitt receiver in his 14th season with the Cardinals. “Jerry Rice, Cris Carter, Marvin Harrison, you’re not going to have guys better than that crew. Isaac Bruce. I remember watching Torry Holt do it all the time. Jimmy Smith was amazing down in Jacksonville. Ocho Cinco, I remember him making some unbelievable sideline catches. I don’t think it’s anything new. I think guys work on it just like they did in the day. I don’t know if it’s any better.”

Former Packers receiver James Lofton, who played with four other teams in a 16-year Hall of Fame career in which he caught 764 passes and 75 touchdowns, said toe-tapping catches were significant during his era (1978-1993). He even taught his receivers the art when he was an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers for six seasons.

But Lofton said more receivers aren’t making those catches, we just see more receivers making those catches because of television.

“You hate to be an oldtimer, but 15 years ago you saw your local team and that was it,” Lofton said the other day on the phone. “Now we got so many highlights. Now you see every player, every instant. You see Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, we see them over and over again. And teams are passing more.

“You look at Antonio Brown’s numbers, they’re incredible. But what would you rather have — his numbers or four Super Bowl rings? When I was playing, [Lynn] Swann and [John] Stallworth were the standard bearers. They were what you wanted. You wanted the postseason and the Super Bowl. You didn’t want 100 catches. All those things are nice. But what you wanted was the prize.”

For a brief moment last week against the Packers, it was a prize to be cherished.