Is Justin Jefferson’s 2022 Season the Best-Ever by a Vikings Receiver?

 By John Turney 

Being a consensus All-Pro, and a consensus Offensive Player of the Year ought to seal the deal for being the best-ever season by a Vikings wideout, right?

After all, Justin Jefferson did those things and more.

He led the NFL with 1,809 receiving yards, something no Viking had ever done, and it also set a team record. 

So is it the best?

It would be tough competition - the Vikings have been blessed with quite a few great receivers over the years - Randy Moss, Cris Carter, Ahmad Rashad, and others. 

So, where would Jefferson's 2022 season fall among the career years of those others?

Taking the best season from each great Vikings receiver and ranking them, based not only on stats but taking into account the era they played and also considering post-season honors from both major sources like the Associated Press (AP) and Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) but All-Pro teams picked scribes who are in the writers' wing of the Hall of Fame, here is one take on the top seasons by wide receivers in Skol-land.

The list—

20. Hassan Jones, 1990 - Jones had 810 receiving yards and seven touchdowns, and three 100-yard games. He had been second fiddle to Anthony Carter for a few years and he filled that role pretty well. They'd been to playoffs three previous seasons but the wheels came off in 1990 but Jones kept it together and had a good year. 

19. Bernard Berrian, 2008 - A ninety-nine-yard touchdown catch propelled his yards per catch to 20.1 yards, still the sixth highest in team history among qualifiers and the highest in twenty-one years at the time. He ended the season with 964 yards and seven scores.

18. Bob Grim, 1971 - The Vikings got Grim as part of the bounty from the Fran Tarkenton trade four years earlier and 1971 was the only year he really contributed. 

He caught 45 passes for 691 yards for seven touchdowns and added 127 yards on end-arounds and reverses and went to the Pro Bowl, showing that in football's dead ball era 800 yards from scrimmage could get a wide receiver some recognition. 

After the season he was part of the package the Vikings sent to the Giants for - - Fran Tarkenton.

17. Nate Burleson, 2004 - When Randy Moss went down with an injury in 2004 the second-year wide receiver had to pick up the slack. 

In the five games Moss missed (he actually started two of them but had a total of one target in them), Burleson had two 130-yard receiving games and ended the year with 1,006 yards and nine touchdowns. 

16. Leo Lewis, 1984 - Little Leo was a slot guy, mostly coming off the bench on passing downs, the 5-8, 170-pound Lewis started a handful of games at split end due to injuries to Sammy White. But, during a disaster of a season for the Vikings, he was a bright spot, leading the led the team in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns. 

15. Stefon Diggs, 2019 - Diggs' talent level is higher than fifteenth on any list, but in this era 63 catches for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns is decent, but not stellar, though his 17.9 yards per catch is very good for recent years. The next season in Buffalo is when he began to have career years, but he was just getting started in Minnesota.

14. Paul Flatley, 1965 - By the mid-1960s coach Norm Van Brocklin had made the expansion Vikings a fairly competitive team and Flatley was the outside playmaker for those squads. 

He was the NFL Rookie of the Year in 1963 and was a Pro Bowler in 1966 but the previous season was his career year. He caught 50 passes from Fran Tarkenton for nearly 900 yards for nearly eighteen yards a catch and nine touchdowns. 

13. Sidney Rice, 2009 - In seven NFL seasons, Rice had only one good one. It was the year Brett Favre arrived and took, with Rice's help, the Vikes to the NFC championship game. Rice's 1,312 yards and eight scores took him to the Pro Bowl.

12. Jake Reed, 1996 - Reed was on the verge of being cut when one of his coaches suggested they get his eyes checked. The doctors found an issue - he needed glasses. Once fitted for them Reed's career was recharged. 

He had four very good seasons in the mid-1990s but lost his starting job in 1998 when a rookie named Randy Moss arrived on the scene. His career year was probably 1996 when he had 1,320 yards receiving and averaged 18.3 yards a catch.

11. Adam Thielen, 2018 - In his career year, Thielen did a very good Wes Welker impression. He caught 113 balls for 1,373 yards and nine touchdowns and was voted to the Pro Bowl. 

He dropped just three passes and his catch percentage was 73.9 percent and his first-down-to-target percentage was the highest of his career.  In 2020 he caught 14 touchdowns and that year was considered but he dropped more than double the passes and some other metrics were not as high. 

10. Percy Harvin, 2011 - Harvin's biggest fan, Brett Favre was gone but Harvin stepped up his game. In addition to Harvin's 967 receiving yards he had 345 rushing yards plus he returned kicks for 520 yards. 

Only two players in the history of the NFL have had 900-300-500 in those three categories in the same year.  The other? Lionel James of the 1985 Chargers. 

9. Sammy White, 1976 - White burst onto the scene in 1976 and was the NFL Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowler. He had 906 receiving yards (then third-best in team history) and ten touchdown receptions, one short of the team mark. He also caught three more touchdowns in the playoffs, including one in Super Bowl XI.

8. Jerry Reichow, 1961 - In the Vikings' inaugural year former Lion and Eagle flanker caught eleven touchdown passes setting a record not broken by a Vikings receiver until thirty-four years later when Chris Carter caught seventeen. 

Thirty-four years.

In the league opener, a 37-13 shocker over the Chicago Bears, he caught three passes for 103 yards and a score. In the season finale, also against the Bears he caught six for 90 yards and three touchdowns. Apparently, Reichow knew how to beat the Bears' coverages.

For the season, Reichow caught fifty passes for 859 yards and a 17.2 yards per catch average and was one of two Vikings that went to the Pro Bowl. 

For a receiver on an expansion team to put up those kinds of numbers is special.

7. Gene Washington, 1969 - In this era choosing a 39-reception season to be sixth on a list of career years may look odd to some younger NFL fans. 

It is one of those IYKYK (if you know you know) things. In that era, teams like the Vikings (or the Dolphins, Cowboys, Rams, Steelers, and others) did not throw the ball a lot and relied on strong defenses, and a year like Washiington's was noteworthy 

In fact, he was All-NFL according to Pro Football Weekly and the New York Daily News and second-team All-Pro both by the AP and UPI as well as being a Pro Bowler. 

For receiving numbers in the NFL and changing eras context matters.

Consider this:  In 1969 the Vikings only threw 2,498 yards and 24 touchdowns as a team and Washington caught 32.9 percent of the total team passing yards - a higher percentage than Cris Carter's 1,371 yards were for the 1995 Viking passing yardage total. 

Even though the Vikings fell short of winning the Super Bowl, in the playoffs Washington caught eight passes for 219 yards (27.4 average) and a score.

6. John Gilliam, 1972 - Gilliam's story is similar to Washington's but he had four excellent campaigns in the Twin Cities. He played a role for the Vikings that Paul Warfield played for the Dolphins or Bob Hayes did for the Cowboys in their glory days - maybe only catch 40 balls a year but they'd go for over 800 yards and maybe eight touchdowns.  

More importantly,  receivers like Warfield, Hayes, and Gilliam would keep defenses honest, not allowing them to pack the box and stop the running game. Having a deep threat was important and having a great one, and Gilliam was one, was even better. 

When Gilliam arrived and Fran Tarkenton returned in 1972 the Vikings went just 7-7, not what was expected, but they were Super Bowl contenders the rest of Gilliam's tenure but 1972 was probably his best season in purple.

He caught 47 passes for 1,035 yards and seven touchdowns and his 22.0 yards per catch led the NFL, he was also a Pro Bowler and his year drew notice from Paul Zimmerman in his pre-Sports Illustrated (SI) days. Then, Dr. Z was writing for the New York Post and he chose Gilliam for his Post All-Pro team.

5. Ahmad Rashad, 1979 - On ABC's Monday Night Football, Howard Cosell had a habit of calling Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver Lynn Swann the "Practically perfect wide receiver." When Fran Tarkenton was on the telecast and Rashad was playing he'd retort by saying that Rashad was the "Nearly perfect wide receiver".

Tarkenton was right. Rashad was as talented as anyone in his era. 

In 1979 he set career highs for catches, yards, and touchdowns and was second-team All-Pro and was voted to the Pro Bowl, and like Gilliam, Rashad's career year was noticed by Paul Zimmerman, then with Sports Illustrated, who picked him for his personal All-Pro team. So did Joel Buchsbaum, the talent evaluating guru for Pro Football Weekly, who chose him for the Gannett News Service All-Pro team.

4. Cris Carter, 1995. In 1994, Cris Carter was a consensus All-Pro and in 1995 he was a second-team All-Pro. But the numbers favor the latter season as his career year. The competition at wide receiver was just tougher for the post-season honors.

He tied his career high in receptions (set in 1994) and set highs for yards and touchdowns, leading the NFL with 17. 

Carter was no speedster, but he could run well enough but what he will always be known for is his tremendous hands, the ability to get both his feet down for sideline catches, and his fade routes in the end zone that accounted for so many of his touchdowns. Those are his"things" if you will.

3. Anthony Carter, 1987. For Carter, the announcer that had a pet saying about him was John Madden. On CBS telecasts when the Vikings were playing, he'd say, "If I coached Anthony Carter I'd write myself a note and the note would say, 'get the ball into Anthony Carter's hands at least ten times in this game.'" 

Madden was an Anthony Carter fan.

In 1987 Carter didn't have a 1,000-yard season but it was a strike year, but on a per-game average 1987 was his top season but by just a hair over 1988. But, add in his playoff totals for both seasons and it is not close - 1987 was better in yards per game and it's not particularly close.

He set the team record for yards per reception at 24.3 and was chosen All-Pro by USA Today, was 

a second-team All-NFC pick, and a Pro Bowler. 

He was uncoverable in the NFC playoff game in San Francisco catching ten passes for 227 yards and also carrying the ball once for 30 yards. 

It was a terrific year.

2. Justin Jefferson, 2022 - Nope. Jefferson still has time but he does not yet own the best season by a Norseman wide receiver. 

This year was a great one, though.

As was previously mentioned he led the NFL in yards receiving and in catches. He was the Offensive Player of the Year, a consensus All-Pro, and a Pro Bowl starter. 

His 1,809 receiving yards are almost 200 more than the previous record. And he's only 23. He was plenty of time to overtake the top player on the list.

1. Randy Moss, 2003 - Cris Carter left after the 2001 season so Moss was on his own for the second year and he was in Scott Linehan's offense for the second year as well. Quarterback Daunte Culpepper was terrific in 2000 but had a couple of down years but things clicked in 2003.

Moss had to transform himself into more than just a deep threat, with Carter gone he had to run more underneath routes, go across the middle more, and be a more complete receiver. He also showed more maturity and leadership. 

All of it worked and Moss had his career year with the club.

Moss broke his own team record for receiving yards with 1,632 and tied the team record for touchdown passes held jointly by himself and Cris Carter with 17. 

All the honors followed - consensus All-Pro, Pro Bowl, and was voted the NFC Player of the Year by the Washington Touchdown Club.

He'd had other tremendous All-Pro years before, but in 2003 he put it all together and though the team didn't have the success it had his rookie year (a field goal short of the Super Bowl) it was a year no one could accuse Moss of quitting in a game or a season. He dominated all year. 

It's just too bad the Randy Ratio didn't last. Within two years Moss was traded away from the Vikings to Oakland and a couple of years after that it took a fourth-round pick from Bill Belichick to resurrect his career in New England.