Justin Jefferson back on 2,000-yard pace after career-best performance

Justin Jefferson had an absolutely huge performance in the Minnesota Vikings’ thrilling 33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at Highmark Stadium. In fact, the performance he had was so big...

[dramatic pause]

“HOW BIG WAS IT?!”

It was so big, that he’s back on pace to reach his stated goal of 2,000 yards receiving this season.

Jefferson had a career-high 193 yards and a touchdown on 10 catches in Sunday afternoon’s win. If you add that to the 867 yards he came into the contest with, that gives him 1,060 yards through the Vikings’ first nine games, an average of 117.77 yards/game. If Jefferson can keep that pace through the Vikings’ remaining eight games, it would give him a total of 2,002 yards on the season.

Jefferson is currently locked in a battle with Miami Dolphins’ star Tyreek Hill and a man he saw in Buffalo, Stefon Diggs, for the NFL’s receiving yardage lead. Hill had just 44 yards this week in the Dolphins’ blowout win over the Cleveland Browns, giving him 1,148 yards so far on the season. Diggs had 129 yards for the Bills on Sunday, bringing his total for the season up to 986 yards.

It’s worth noting that Hill has played one more game than Jefferson has thus far. The Dolphins will take their bye in Week 11, so Hill has already played 10 games to Jefferson’s nine. He’s averaging 114.8 yards/game, slightly behind Jefferson’s pace to this point in the year.

In addition to that, Jefferson is now a mere 88 yards away from breaking Randy Moss’ NFL record for most receiving yards by a player in their first three NFL seasons. Moss had 4,163 yards in his first three seasons with Minnesota (48 games), while Jefferson currently sits at 4,076 yards after his first 42 NFL games. It looks like he’s going to dust Moss’ record with room to spare.

Justin Jefferson is good, folks. I know that you all know that already, but we like to emphasize that from time to time anyway.