Blake Bortles said this week on NFL Network that Allen Robinson and Allen Hurnsare the best pass-catching duo in the NFL.
Hurns isn't disagreeing with his quarterback.
"We are the No. 1 duo in the league," the receiver told Mike DiRocco of ESPN. "You just look at what we've done this past season. Even though guys like Brandon Marshall and (Eric) Decker did a tremendous job, (and) Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, but you look at it as far as we probably had like 50 less catches combined than all of those guys and our yardage is up there. As far as touchdowns, the same thing."
Hurns and Robinson combined for 144 receptions, 2,431 yards and 24 touchdowns. They ranked sixth in combined catches among receivers, but third in yards and second in touchdowns. Both Marshall/Decker and Thomas/Sanders combos out gained them and the Broncos pair is the only to earn more TDs.
Around The NFL's Chris Wesseling broke down the pass-catching pairings earlier this week, so we won't revisit the comparisons in full here.
But I would like to add one often overlooked coupling: Larry Fitzgerald and John Brown. The Cardinals' duo put up 174 catches, 2,218 yards and 16 TD catches. Fitzgerald continues to defy Father Time and Brown is only getting better. Arizona's tandem should be included in any "best receiver duo" discussion.
Getting back to the Jags, one big difference stands out between Jacksonville's pairing and most of the others: age. Robinson and Hurns are the only duo with at least 60 catches each that are entering just their third NFL season.
"Last year around this time, the talk was we needed a veteran receiver or we probably needed to draft a receiver," Hurns said. "It's just exciting just to see how far we came and the most exciting thing about it is that was only Year 2. We've got time to grow."
They have some ways to go to surpass the few tandems in front of them, but if Hurns and Robinson continue to grow at their current pace there is no telling how high they could climb.
