James Walker compares Hines Ward to the best receivers that are still active in potential hall of fame discussions. Of his chart, he compares Ward to Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens, Randy Moss and Torry Holt. So I wondered where Chad Johnson stacked amongst these notable nominations for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
| Player | Catches | Yards | TDs | Pro Bowls | SB Wins |
| Marvin Harrison | 1,102 | 14,580 | 128 | 8 | 1 |
| Terrell Owens | 951 | 14,122 | 139 | 6 | 0 |
| Randy Moss | 843 | 13,201 | 135 | 6 | 0 |
| Torry Holt | 869 | 12,660 | 74 | 7 | 1 |
| Hines Ward | 800 | 9,780 | 72 | 4 | 1 |
| Chad Johnson | 612 | 8,905 | 53 | 5 | 0 |
The noticeable issue here is that the "elite" guys, the receivers likely bound for Hall of Fame arguments, have played several seasons more than Johnson. So how does Johnson compare when we break down the numbers by the amount of seasons they've played?
| Player | Seasons | Catches | Yards | TDs |
| Marvin Harrison | 13 | 84.8 | 1,121.5 | 9.8 |
| Terrell Owens | 13 | 73.2 | 1,086.3 | 10.7 |
| Randy Moss | 11 | 76.6 | 1,200.1 | 12.3 |
| Torry Holt | 10 | 86.9 | 1,266 | 7.4 |
| Hines Ward | 11 | 72.7 | 889.1 | 6.5 |
| Chad Johnson | 8 | 76.5 | 1,113.1 | 6.6 |
Johnson's touchdown production barely beats out Ward's, and Owens and Moss each have double-digit touchdown averages. In fact, Johnson's averages kind of took me by surprise; I really expected more production. In truth, 2008 really hurt his averages, but so have injured or down seasons by the others.