Cliff Branch ranks in the all-time elite tier for receivers — a career that places Branch in the top 10% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Branch a career score of 71, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 2 boards

WROAK#0ACT

Cliff Branch

Top 8% all-time WRsIron Man🌅 Early Bloomer · 1976

Height5'11"

Weight170 lb

BornAug 1, 1948

Age

Career Value · VORP

213 career value over replacement — #337 all-time of 4,695. 17.8/season above a replacement-level WR.

Fan Rating

Rate Cliff Branch — All-Time

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Compare Cliff Branch vs Player Report data error

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Depth

of 100

Reached 38% of the all-time Receiving Yards leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

38% of the all-time Receiving Yards leader38

3 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader100

A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leader at this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 94%.

Encyclopedia Coverage4/8 data layers

StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.

Bio & DraftBirth date, height/weight, draft round/pick, college — sourced from nflverse players.csv (CC-BY 4.0). Covers all NFL eras.

Season Stats (1999–present)Week-by-week box scores aggregated to season totals: passing, rushing, receiving, defense. Source: nflverse player_stats. Counting stats are exact; rates are derived.

Advanced (EPA, 1999–present)Not available for this player

Snap Counts (2012–present)Not available for this player

Defensive StatsNot available for this player

College StatsCollege attribution is present, but this profile artifact does not yet carry a parsed college stat table.

NFL Combine / Pro DayNot available for this player

Proprietary LayersKV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — era-normalized career rating 0–100 calibrated within position group (1999+ coverage). SIS (Snap Impact Score, 2012+) — per-snap production z-scored within position. VORP — value over replacement player. Durability IQ — games-played percentile adjusted for era.

Where this data comes from

Modern-era stats (1999+) come from nflverse's open data releases. Pre-1999 seasons are backfilled additively from Wikipedia and NFL.com's own official season pages — never from rights-restricted sources.

nflverse — CC-BY 4.0 — attribution required
Wikipedia — Facts extracted under Feist v. Rural Telephone; courtesy CC-BY-SA attribution
NFL.com — Official league site; facts extracted under Feist, courtesy attribution

Methodology · Trust Center

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Playoff vs Regular Season

📊 Consistent

Yards / Reception: 17.3 regular season → 17.7 playoffs (10 playoff seasons)

+2%

vs reg season

Career Milestones9

Major career thresholds crossed, derived from regular-season totals (1999+).

19741K career receiving yards
1975100 career receptions
197525 career receiving TDs
19763K career receiving yards
1978250 career receptions
19795K career receiving yards

Understanding These Stats

Receiving

Tgt — Targets — how many times the receiver was thrown to, regardless of completion.

Rec — Receptions — catches made.

Yds — Receiving yards.

TD — Receiving touchdowns.

Ctch% — Catch rate — receptions ÷ targets × 100. Measures how reliably a receiver turns opportunities into gains. 70%+ is elite.

Y/R — Yards per reception — receiving yards ÷ receptions. Measures big-play ability; 15+ is elite for WRs.

Y/Tgt — Yards per target — receiving yards ÷ targets. The single most complete receiving efficiency metric: accounts for both drops and incomplete targets. Elite receivers post 8+ yards per target.

AirYd/T — Air yards per target — average depth of route at time of target. High values indicate a deep threat role; low values indicate a slot/check-down role.

1D — First downs gained on receiving plays.

Proprietary StatVault Metrics

KV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — Era-normalized career rating 0–100 within position group, calibrated so a 50 = average starter and 90+ = all-time great. Covers 1999–present. Built on a 5-year IQR/robust-std era window.

Postseason Career

Receiving

Rec73Yds1,289TD5Y/R17.7

College Stats

Colorado; Wharton County Junior CollegeCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Colorado; Wharton County Junior College), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.

Reference Graph

Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.

Top Teammates

Willie BrownCB6y Fred BiletnikoffWR6y Marc WilsonQB5y Dave CasperTE4y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Cliff inherited the Las Vegas Raiders WR room from Fred Biletnikoff (1965–1978), and handed it to Malcolm Barnwell (1981–1984).

Fred Biletnikoff 1965–1978Cliff Branch 1972–1985Malcolm Barnwell 1981–1984Dokie Williams 1983–1987Mervyn Fernandez 1987–1992Tim Brown

Similar Players

Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).

Movementderived from season history

1985final season
Last recorded season with OAK
1972signing
Entered the NFL with OAK

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

5'11" / 170 lb

Frame

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 12-season peers. See all →

peak 81

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

D1972

A1974

B+1975

A1976

C+1977

C+1978

B1979

B1980

B1981

B+1982

B1983

C+1984

Availability

Era Translator

Rec Yds translated to the 2025 NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.

Season	Actual Rec Yds	Rec Yds/G	→ 2025 Rec Yds	→ 2025 /G
1972	41	2.9	0-41	0
1974	1,092	78	1,371+279	80.6
1975	893	63.8	1,020+127	60
1976	1,111	79.4	1,485+374	87.4
1977	540	41.5	279-261	16.4
1978	709	44.3	427-282	25.1
1979	844	60.3	793-51	46.6
1980	858	53.6	744-114	43.8
1981	635	39.7	672+37	39.5
1982	575	63.9	1,062+487	62.5
1983	696	58	1,006+310	59.2
1984	401	28.6	538+137	31.6

Data: nflverse:players, wikipedia:season-stats (CC-BY-SA, facts-only), wikipedia:pfhof-inductee-list · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 8/31/2026