This summer has a Hall of Fame buzz in the world of Miami Dolphins faithful. In just a few weeks, Zach Thomas will lead off the 2023 class of Enshrinees as the first speaker in Canton, Ohio on August 5.
Thomas’ induction, which has been a long time coming, adds a little momentum to another Dolphin that’s patiently waiting for his own eternal spot among the immortals of the game of football.
It was announced on Wednesday that Dolphins’ all-time great Mark Clayton has been named a nominee for the 2024 Senior Class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Clayton was selected by the Dolphins in the eighth round of the 1983 NFL draft, the same year quarterback Dan Marino was chosen by Miami in the first. With each falling further than expected, but thankfully meeting in Miami, the duo would soon rise together, as 1984 was a year that had been unseen before in the sport.
Marino and Clayton, in just their second season, and first as key players on a Don Shula team, shattered NFL records, as the air attack was simply born. Clayton scored an NFL-leading 18 touchdowns that season, a mark that had never been seen in pro football. The previous single-season record of receiving touchdowns was 17, yet this was in the 1940s and 1950s.
To explain further how impressive 18 touchdowns are even today, since Clayton, only four men have accomplished that number or more receiving touchdowns in a season – Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, Davante Adams and Sterling Sharpe.
Clayton would again claim the league-leading receiving touchdown title in 1988 with 14. He was one of just two players to lead the league in receiving scores from 1984-91 not named Jerry Rice, who led the NFL in scores five times in that period.
Clayton would go on to be named to five Pro Bowls and a second-team All-Pro thrice in 1984, 1985, and 1988. He finished his career with 582 receptions, 8,974 receiving yards, and 84 touchdowns while averaging 15.4 yards per catch. He is Miami’s franchise leader in career receptions as well as touchdowns.
His career yards per catch are better than multiple Hall of Famer wide receivers including:
- Jerry Rice (14.8)
- Terrell Owens (14.8)
- Issac Bruce (14.9)
- Tim Brown (13.7)
- Marvin Harrison (13.2)
- Cris Carter (12.6)
Taking it even a step further, Clayton averaged a touchdown every 6.9 receptions in his career. Which would place him in the Top-12 in that category in the history of football, among players with at least 70 career receiving touchdowns.
Clayton is among the 31 nominees named. Each of the nominees is in this senior bracket with the parameter that the player played his last NFL game no later than the 1998 season.
In addition to Clayton former Dolphin offensive lineman, the late-great Bob Kuechenberg will join him, as well as:
Ken Anderson, Ottis Anderson, Carl Banks, Maxie Baughan, Larry Brown, Mark Clayton, Charlie Conerly, Roger Craig, Henry Ellard, Randy Gradishar, Lester Hayes, Chris Hinton, Cecil Isbell, Joe Jacoby, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Mike Kenn, George Kunz, Albert Lewis, Jim Marshall, Clay Matthews Jr., Steve McMichael, Eddie Meador, Stanley Morgan, Tommy Nobis, Art Powell, Sterling Sharpe, Steve Tasker, Otis Taylor, Everson Walls and Al Wistert.