Notre Dame Football All-Decade Team: Wide Receiver

The four Notre Dame wide receivers up for discussion are TJ Jones, Chase Claypool, Michael Floyd, and Will Fuller.

I should probably start out this piece by saying that there were plenty of wide receivers up for discussion, but ultimately I felt two from this list should be the one’s represented on the All-Decade Team. Honorable mentions include: Duval Kamara, Davaris Daniels, Equanimious St. Brown, Miles Boykin and a little farther down the list Chris Brown, Corey Robinson, Kevin Stepherson and Chris Finke. Simply put, Notre Dame has had its fair share of really good wide receivers this decade. Let’s start with the two runner ups on this list.

TJ Jones (2010-2013)

Jones came to Notre Dame as a high profile recruit out of Roswell, Georgia in the 2010 class and instantly made his stamp on the program. He would ultimately start 7 games a true freshman, catching 23 passes for 306 yards and 3 touchdowns. Every year those stats would rise, and by the time his career ended Jones would find himself all over the Notre Dame top 10 lists at wide receiver — his best season coming in 2013 where he finished with 70 receptions, 1108 yards and 9 scores. Jones was never the dominant wide receiver that Fuller, Floyd or even senior year Chase Claypool were, but his consistency and overall production are some of the best in Notre Dame history. He finds himself 2nd on the all time receptions list, 7th in receiving yards, 7th in receiving touchdowns and one of only 6 wideouts in Notre Dame history with at least 150 receptions, 2,000 receiving yards and 15 receiving touchdowns.

While Jones’ career slides through the cracks a bit, he was extremely productive and well deserving of All-Decade team recognition. He is currently an NFL free agent, but has enjoyed a good amount of success in the league since his 6th round selection by the Detroit Lions in 2014.

Chase Claypool (2016-Present)

I spoke a lot of Claypool in the Team MVP article that recently came out, so I don’t want to get super repetitive, but he is a guy I wouldn’t have expected to include on this list as early as the start of this season. However, it is crazy how one really amazing season on top of other productive years can add up to a career worth mentioning among Notre Dame elite.

With one more game to go in his Fighting Irish career, Claypool should finish 7th all time in receptions and has an outside shot of cracking the top 10 in receiving yards. It would also be pretty cool if he is able to get to that 1,000 yard receiving mark and become one of only a few players to have 1,000+ yards and 10+ touchdowns in a single season in Notre Dame history.

Michael Floyd (2008-2011)

Floyd makes this list even though only half of his career was in this decade. With that said, his last two seasons in South Bend were better than most people’s full careers. In those two years, he accumulated 2,172 yards and 179 receptions to go along with 22 total touchdowns. He is also the Notre Dame career leader in receiving yards, receptions and receiving touchdowns by a wide margin.

Floyd would go on to be a first round pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2012 and enjoy a very nice career in the NFL for the first several seasons before his production slipped — due to a variety of reasons. Floyd is one of the best wideouts in Notre Dame history, forget just this decade.

Will Fuller (2013-2015)

Fuller is one of the fastest players to ever wear an Irish uniform and it showed quite often throughout his career. I will never forget his touchdown against Adoree Jackson or his game winning touchdown against Virginia. Whenever the offense needed a big play, he provided it. It almost felt like half the game-plan was for DeShone Kizer to simply throw it up to Fuller on a fly route and watch him outrun everyone — and for the most part he did.

Much like Floyd, Fuller really only had two productive seasons in this decade, but those seasons were incredible and arguably even better. If he came back for his senior year, he would almost certainly have the all-time receiving touchdown mark at Notre Dame and quite possibly the receiving yardage as well.

In 3 seasons at Notre Dame, Fuller caught 30 touchdowns — 29 in his last two years — to go along with 144 receptions and 2,512 receiving yards.

Also like Floyd, Fuller isn’t simply one of the best of this decade, he is one of the best of all time – and was also a first round NFL draft pick enjoying himself a very productive career when healthy. Floyd and Fuller represent the two starting wideouts on the Slap the Sign All-Decade Team.