Not to be confused withSteve Smith (WR · 2007–2012), Steve Smith (OT · 1974), Steve Smith (FB · 1987–1995) or Steve Smith (DB · 2002).

Also in other sports:nbaSteve Smith (SG · 1992–2005), nhlSteve Smith (D · 1985–2001).

Steve Smith ranks in the all-time elite tier for receivers — a career that places Smith in the top 1% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Smith a career score of 89, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 8 boards

Streaks4 straight · 1,000 receiving yards · 2005–08

WRBAL#89ACT

Steve Smith

5× Pro Bowl2× All-ProTop 1% all-time WRsIron Legend🏟️ Carolina Panthers Icon 🏆 Clutch · +19% playoffs

Career Value · VORP

366 career value over replacement — #58 all-time of 4,695. 24.4/season above a replacement-level WR.

Career Profile

Led league 1×7 top-10 Compiler30% in top 3 yrs

Draft OutcomeSteal ↑

Pick #74 (Rd 3) · CAR · 2001 · +49.1 vs expected KV-H

89actual

39.9 expected · Δ+49.1

💔+62.5 stolen VORP·2.56 szns lost

Fan Rating

Rate Steve Smith — All-Time

Tap a star to rate

Explore More

Similar Players

Tom Fears

95% match

Raymond Berry

94% match

Tyreek Hill

94% match

Santana Moss

92% match

Doug Baldwin

90% match

Compare Steve Smith vs Player Report data error

Team Carrier Evidence

Ranked #282 of 568 by seasons where high individual production happened on low-win teams. Score aggregates only tracked StatVault categories.

Full board

Total Score

2 qualifying seasons

2011 CAR·6 team wins#5

Receiving Yards · 1,394 · score 21

2011 CAR·6 team wins#17

Receptions · 79 · score 9

All-Time Standing

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

Strong

of 100

Reached 67% of the all-time Receptions leader — a strong all-time profile at the position.

67% of the all-time Receptions leader67

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: 93%.

Encyclopedia Coverage6/8 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)Offensive, defensive, and special-teams snap counts with team-share percentages. Essential for OL and situational players. Source: nflverse snap_counts.

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

Per-Snap Impact

Wide Receivers · proprietary · 2012+

Excellent

SIS

Yards / snap:1.233 ydsSee leaderboard →

Yards/snap1.233Touch rate0.157EPA/snap0Snap share74.2%Off snaps2,660ReliableCV 0.28

Production per snap — the box score normalized by opportunity. SIS is z-scored within wide receivers, shrinkage-regularized so small samples don't spike, over the NFL snap-count era (2012+).

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Combine · 2001

Percentiles compare each raw measurement against position peers, the full combine pool, and the same draft class where enough samples exist.

WR · 2001 class

4.41s

40-Yard

Strong · 80th pct

Pos 80thAll 93thClass Pos 84thClass All 96th

38.5"

Vertical

Strong · 81th pct

Pos 81thAll 90thClass Pos 53thClass All 84th

121"

Broad Jump

Playoff vs Regular Season

🏆 Playoff Performer

Yards / Reception: 14.3 regular season → 17.0 playoffs (5 playoff seasons)

+19%

vs reg season

Career Milestones14

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

20021K career receiving yards
2003100 career receptions
20053K career receiving yards
2005250 career receptions
200625 career receiving TDs
20075K career receiving yards

Understanding These Stats

Passing

Cmp / Att — Completions and pass attempts.

Cmp% — Completion percentage — completions ÷ attempts × 100.

Yds — Passing yards — total air + yards after catch on completions.

TD / TD% — Passing touchdowns. TD% = TDs per 100 attempts, measuring scoring efficiency.

Int / Int% — Interceptions thrown. Int% = INTs per 100 attempts — the primary ball-security metric.

Y/A — Yards per attempt — passing yards ÷ attempts. The core passing efficiency rate.

AdjY/A — Adjusted yards per attempt: (Pass Yds + 20×TD − 45×INT) ÷ Att. Penalizes turnovers and rewards touchdowns — widely considered the most predictive single-season QB metric.

TD:INT — TD-to-interception ratio — passing touchdowns ÷ interceptions thrown. Elite QBs sustain career ratios above 3.0; HOF greats often exceed 4.0. Not shown when no interceptions.

Rate — NFL passer rating — the official formula combining Cmp%, Y/A, TD%, and INT% on a 0–158.3 scale. Good QB performance ≈ 90+; elite ≈ 110+.

Sk — Times sacked — how many times the QB was brought down behind the line of scrimmage.

Postseason Career

11 playoff games

Receiving

Tgt63Rec59Yds1,001TD9Ctch%93.7%Y/R17.0Y/Tgt15.91D39

Passing

College Stats

Utah; Santa MonicaCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Utah; Santa Monica), 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

John KasayK10y Chris GambleCB9y Brad HooverFB9y Julius PeppersDE8y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Steve inherited the Carolina Panthers WR room from Muhsin Muhammad (1996–2009), and handed it to Brandon LaFell (2010–2013).

Mark Carrier 1995–1998Raghib Ismail 1996–1998Muhsin Muhammad 1996–2009Steve Smith 2001–2013Brandon LaFell 2010–2013Ted Ginn

Similar Players

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

Movementderived from season history

2016final season
Last recorded season with BAL
2014team change
Joined BAL (from CAR)
2001draft
Drafted by CAR — Round 3, Pick 74

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

5'9" / 195 lb

Frame

184 lb at 4.41s

Size-speed

38.5" vert / 121" broad

Explosion

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 15-season peers. See all →

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
2001	154	14	96-58	5.6
2002	872	58.1	876+4	51.5
2003	1,110	69.4	1,100-10	64.7
2005	1,563	97.7	1,654+91	97.3
2006	1,166	83.3	1,323+157	77.9
2007	1,002	66.8	1,052+50	61.9
2008	1,421	101.5	1,712+291	100.7
2009	982	65.5	1,028+46	60.4
2010	554	39.6	562+8	33
2011	1,394	87.1	1,412+18	83
2012	1,174	73.4	1,143-31	67.3
2013	745	49.7	738-7	43.4
2014	1,065	66.6	1,003-62	59
2015	670	95.7	1,539+869	90.5
2016	799	57.1	872+73	51.3

Data: nflverse:players, nflverse:player_stats, nflverse:snap_counts, nflverse:combine, nflverse:draft_picks, nflverse:injuries, nfl.com:official-stats (facts-only reference) · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 8/31/2026

Rushing

Att — Rushing attempts (carries).

Yds — Rushing yards.

TD — Rushing touchdowns.

Y/A — Yards per carry — rushing yards ÷ carries. The core rushing efficiency rate; 4.5+ is solid, 5+ is elite.

TD% — Touchdown rate per carry (TDs ÷ carries × 100) — measures scoring efficiency per touch independent of volume. Red-zone workhorses lead here.

1D — First downs gained on rushing plays.

1D% — First-down conversion rate (first downs ÷ carries × 100) — how often a carry moves the chains. Top RBs convert on 25%+ of attempts.

Fmb — Rushing fumbles lost — the key ball-security stat for running backs. Below 1 per season is elite.

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.

SIS (Snap Impact Score) — Per-snap production z-scored within position group and era (2012+). Measures how much a player produced per opportunity, not raw volume.

VORP (Value Over Replacement) — Sum of max(0, season KV-H − positional replacement level) across a career. Measures career value above the minimum-roster baseline at each position.

Durability IQ — 0–100 score reflecting how many games a player played relative to peers at the same position in the same era. Adjusts for injury-shortened seasons.

Canton Monitor · HOF

Calibrated Hall-of-Fame probability — fit against actual enshrinement. See all →

46%

On the Bubble

What carries the case

Era Quality (KV-H) 32.3%All-Pro 22.9%Longevity 20%Pro Bowls 14.3%All-Time Ranks 6.7%League Leads 3.8%

Monitor score 104.8 · components sum to the score (All-Pro ×12 · Pro Bowl ×3 · League Lead ×4 · ranks/era/longevity weighted).

What Would It Take?

To reach 50% HOF probability (score target: 108.7 · current: 104.8 · gap: +3.9)

1 more selection(First-Team All-Pro · 12 pts each · +12 pts total)

1 more season leading the NFL(League Lead · 4 pts each · +4 pts total)

2 more appearances(Pro Bowl · 3 pts each · +6 pts total)

Paths ranked cheapest first · accolade-based, data-calibrated vs actual enshrinement

Career Fingerprint

Statistical profile across 5 dimensions

Overall

Longevity87

Peak91

Accolades36

Consistency65

Per-Snap72

On the boards· Appears on 8 boards

Steve Smith

Team Carrier Evidence

All-Time Standing

Where this data comes from

Per-Snap Impact

Career Aging Trajectory

Combine · 2001

Postseason Career

Receiving

Passing

College Stats

Reference Graph

Top Teammates

Franchise Succession

Similar Players

Movementderived from season history

Athletic & Unique Profile

Knox

Era Translator

Rushing

2001 Draft Class· this player went #74