Hot Take: Justin Jefferson passes Randy Moss in Vikings receiving yards

AtoZ Sports

Tyler Forness discusses Justin Jefferson and how the wide receiver could overtake a Minnesota legend WR Randy Moss for second-place in all-time receiving yards with the Vikings

Transcript

00:00Biggest hot take for the Minnesota Vikings has to do with Justin Jefferson and Randy Moss.

00:05It's a really interesting one.

00:09The Minnesota Vikings are going into the 2025 season, and it's all surrounding J.J. McCarthy,

00:15which of course it is.

00:17It's a first-year starter.

00:18The Minnesota Vikings haven't had consistency at the quarterback position, arguably since

00:21Fran Tarkington.

00:23Yeah, we can talk about Kirk Cousins, but the entire fan base seemingly wanted to replace

00:27him every single year.

00:28And Dante Culpepper, who, while he was my pick to be on the quarter-century team at

00:32the position and nearly had an MVP season in 2004, if it weren't for Peyton Manning's

00:3749 touchdown passes, he had a lot of detractors himself and then shredded knee in November

00:44of 2005, ended up cratering his career.

00:48But the one thing we don't have any questions about is Justin Jefferson, and that's where

00:51the discussion comes today.

00:53Kyle Krabs and Destin Adams here at A to Z Sports did hot takes for each team in the

00:59NFC North, and how they broke down the Vikings was interesting.

01:03They gave it to Krabs, and his theory was that Justin Jefferson would pass Randy Moss for

01:08second place all-time in Vikings receiving yards.

01:11And it's interesting.

01:12Here's kind of how he breaks it down.

01:14Randy Moss finished his career with 9,316 yards before continuing his career elsewhere.

01:18It took him 113 games to get there.

01:20Hear me out.

01:21Justin Jefferson has played in 77 career games in Minnesota, but is less than 2,000 yards

01:24behind Moss in the Vikings' all-time list.

01:26Jefferson, who has 7,432 receiving yards, needs 203 to move past Anthony Carter for third

01:31place on the all-time list.

01:33That's one good day at the office for Jefferson.

01:35Jefferson needs 1,885 yards to pass Moss for second place in Vikings history.

01:39He nearly did that in 2022, despite posting just five receptions for 53 yards across Minnesota's

01:44five final two games of that season.

01:46And what's really interesting about the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson is, well, he is

01:53the number one receiver all-time in receiving yards per game at 96.5.

01:57Second place is nine yards behind him, and that's Jamar Chase at 87.5.

02:02Now, could that end up changing over the course of the next year?

02:05Sure.

02:06But with Sam Darnold at the helm for the Vikings and a very diverse pass catching group, Jefferson

02:12still averaged over 90 yards per game.

02:15And in 2022, when he won Offensive Player of the Year, 106 yards per game.

02:222023, when he missed seven games, Jefferson still averaged 107 yards per reception.

02:30And that's going to be the key here because half of those games were the Kirk Cousins.

02:33The other half were a mismatch of Josh Dobbs, Nick Mullins, and Jaron Hall.

02:39No matter who is throwing him the football, it does not matter.

02:43Jefferson produces and he does so at a very high level.

02:46So when it comes to breaking the record, he will have to break his own record of receiving

02:51yards in a season.

02:52But we've been talking for a couple years about how Jefferson might be able to hit 2,000 yards.

02:56And with a guy like McCarthy needing to lean on somebody right away, that guy could be Jefferson.

03:02And you know what?

03:03There are going to be a couple games a year where he just doesn't do much because they

03:06just sell out to stop him and be like, all right, beat us with the likes of Jordan Addison,

03:11TJ Hawkinson, Jalen Naylor, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason.

03:14We're not letting Jefferson do it.

03:15They're going to be those games.

03:16Hell, there was one game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field where they sold out.

03:20And Hawkinson, Addison, and Aaron Jones all had over 100 yards from scrimmage.

03:24Even so, the Vikings are going to get Jefferson his.

03:28And if he ends up taking off with McCarthy from a chemistry standpoint early and often,

03:32he could end up surpassing that.

03:34Heck, he could even surpass Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, and Calvin Johnson, three of the

03:38top receiving yards leaders in a single season, and break that 2,000-yard threshold for the

03:43first time ever.

03:44Don't be surprised if it happens.

03:45Jefferson's already the best per-game receiver of all time.

03:49And he's only entering year six.

03:52Is it a hot take?

03:52Honestly, it probably shouldn't be.

03:54But it still would be a career high.

03:56So I suppose you have to call it at least lukewarm.

03:58I'm Tyler Fronis with ADC Sports.

04:00It's called Vikings.

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