The Receiver docuseries from Omaha Productions and NFL Films (as well as Patrick Mahomes’ 2PM Productions) premieres all eight of its first-season episodes Wednesday on Netflix.
The series is a follow-up to last year’s Quarterback, covering Justin Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings, Davante Adams of the Las Vegas Raiders, Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Detroit Lions, and Deebo Samuel and George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers through the 2023 NFL season.
Netflix released a four-minute sneak peek Tuesday featuring Omaha’s Peyton Manning introducing it…until ESPN’s Randy Moss took over.
“Peyton, Peyton, Peyton—this show is about receivers, right? I love you and all, but why don’t you pass this season off to me? It’s in good hands.”
From there, Moss went on to discuss some common comments on receivers.
“It’s always funny when people say a receiver has one job, ‘Catch the ball,’ when catching the ball is mostly out of our hands. The playcall, the protection, the quarterback looking our way. So many things we have no control over have to go right just for us to have the chance to do our job. No matter how much you train, study, and practice, when the ball is snapped, you can leave the defender in the dust, run the perfect route, and have absolutely nothing to show for it.
“Catch the ball? Congrats, you’re now a moving target. Drop the ball, sorry, you’ll never hear the end of it. They call us divas despite our decoy routes. They call us distractions despite all the d*** blocking we do. But no one seems to recognize the one thing we actually are: always open.
“So this year, we switched it up. Instead of giving quarterbacks even more love, we followed five of the league’s best pass catchers throughout the 2023 season.”
The trailer then shows some clips from each of the five featured receivers and some discussion of each. Moss then ends with a sarcastic “But hey, all they’ve got to do is catch the ball, right?”
It will be interesting to see how Receiver is received. Quarterback (following Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota) earned decent reviews and a solid amount of discussion but reportedly wasn’t able to find willing subjects for a second season, with several notable figures turning them down. That led to a pivot to Receiver, and while some (including Kansas City Chiefs tight end/Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce) reportedly still turned them down, they did get five prominent figures here. And it’s notable to see Moss involved as well. We’ll see how this season goes for them.
[Netflix on YouTube]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.