Justin Jefferson in some pretty good company for his age

On Thursday, 16 June, Minnesota Vikings’ star wide receiver Justin Jefferson celebrated his 23rd birthday. Jefferson has taken the league by storm over in his first two seasons, but there’s one statistic that the team shared on Thursday that shows how ridiculously good he’s been.

Of all the wide receivers that have graced a National Football League field in its history, only one of them has managed to amass 3,000 receiving yards before the age of 23. That would be Jefferson, who put up 1,400 yards as a rookie in 2020 and blew that away with 1,616 yards this past season.

While Jefferson came up just sort of breaking Randy Moss’ single-season Vikings’ receiving yardage record this past season. . .Moss’ 1,632 yards in 2003 still stands as the record. . .Jefferson has put up more yards before the age of 23 than Moss did, surpassing that total by 290 yards. Given the way that Moss crashed the league in 1998 and 1999, seeing that Jefferson has put up even bigger numbers than Moss did is a little shocking. Pleasantly shocking, but shocking nonetheless.

Happy Birthday, Justin Jefferson! Here’s hoping that we keep seeing your name at the top of similar lists when you hit age 24. . .and 25. . .and 26. . .and 27. . .and. . .