3. Don Hutson
Hutson is the one who changed it all. He was a wide receiver before they were called wide receivers. He was running routes before players knew how to run routes. In an era that was largely focused on running the ball between the tackles, Hutson made his team, the Green Bay Packers, throw him the ball. Without knowing it at the time, Hutson started the transformation of football into the pass-happy game we know today.
The first pass Hutson caught in the NFL went for 83 yards and a touchdown. The rest, as they say, is history. He went on to catch a league-leading six touchdown passes as a rookie on his way to becoming the pre-eminent pass catcher of the late 1930s and early 1940s. He played 11 seasons, leading the league in receptions eight times, receiving yards seven times, and receiving touchdowns nine times, all of which remain all-time NFL records that may never be broken. In addition to being the primary trailblazer of his time, he remains one of the best and most dominant wide receivers in NFL history.