Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, And The Race To 1,000

In what has become a pass-happy National Football League, the Minnesota Vikings have accomplished a somewhat ignominious feat by not having a receiver go over the 1,000-yard mark since Sidney Rice had 1,312 yards in 2009. It appears that the Vikings are going to break that cold streak this year. . .and, in a surprising development, there’s a chance that they could end up with two receivers going over that mark.

After his huge performance in Saturday’s loss at Green Bay, Adam Thielen now leads the Vikings in receiving yardage with 960. Just behind him is Stefon Diggs, who has 903 yards this season despite missing two games (Week 5 against Houston, Week 11 against Detroit) with injuries. Tight end Kyle Rudolph is a fairly distant third with his 723 yards on the year.

If both Diggs and Thielen could get over the 1,000-yard mark in Sunday’s regular season finale against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium, it would mark the first time since the year 2000 that the Vikings had two receivers eclipse that total. In that season, Randy Moss had 1,437 yards while Cris Carter had 1,274. The third highest receiving total that season was running back Robert Smith, who checked in with 348 yards.

Diggs and Thielen each also put themselves into the record books in a couple of their single-game performances this season. Thielen’s 202 yards against Green Bay this past weekend is tied for the third-highest regular season yardage total in Vikings’ history, while Diggs’ 182-yard performance back in Week 2 against the Packers puts him in 9th place on that list.

(They did that while catching passes from Sam Bradford? Huh. Imagine that.)

With nothing more than pride to play for this Sunday in the season finale, who do you think will go over the 1,000-yard receiving mark for our favorite football team?