The first franchise record has fallen for Justin Jefferson…and another might not be far behind.
Jefferson set the Vikings’ franchise record for receiving yards in a season on Saturday, hauling in a 25-yard catch in the first quarter against the Giants that gave him 1,648 yards on the season, passing the 1,632 Randy Moss had in 2003 for the most ever by a Viking.
Moss had 111 catches that season, so it took Jefferson two more (the grab was his 113th of the year) to set the record.
Jefferson added another catch for 13 yards on what ended up a TD drive for Minnesota, giving him 114 catches for 1,661 yards on the year; that former total is now also third in Vikings history, as he passed Adam Thielen’s 2018 total of 113 on the drive, and is now just eight behind Cris Carter – who had 122 catches in both 1994 and 1995 – for the most grabs in a season.
He’s already ninth all-time in receiving yards in team history in less than three full seasons, and is also now in the top seven in franchise history with 161 targets in a single season, a number only three other Vikings have reached: Carter (four times), Moss (twice), and Jake Reed, whose 161 in 1994 wasn’t even the best total on the team thanks to Carter.
Jefferson is all but certain to break the team receptions record at some point in the next two games, but perhaps his next goal after that is the biggest one overall: the NFL’s all-time single-season receiving yards record.
With 1,661 through that drive, Jefferson is currently 16th in NFL history, and would move into the Top 10 with 37 more yards on the day. He also needs 303 yards the rest of the way – entirely doable – to tie Calvin Johnson’s NFL record of 1,964 in 2012.
Even 139 more yards on the season would make Jefferson just the sixth man to reach 1,800 in a season.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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