By: Rob Kleifield

Jefferson crossing the five-century threshold in his first 79 games is ridiculous. It's indicative of his superhumanness. Here's how several football phenoms fared in an equal number of games out of the gate: Fitzgerald ledgered 443 receptions, Randy Moss 408, Calvin Johnson 390 and Jerry Rice 362.

Of course, throwing frequency has increased, and offensive concepts and player development has revolutionized the game (quarterbacks and receivers are entering the NFL with a deeper bag of tricks and polish). But Jefferson is in his own class stacked against the modern era's finest and active stars.

It's not solely his sheer number of catches that impresses but the yards he's accumulated.

Two players, Michael Thomas (557) and Cooper Kupp (505), have snared more flies in the trap than Jefferson through 79 games, but they spawned close to 1,200 fewer receiving yards. Julio Jones (497) and Anquan Boldin (496) had faintly lower 79-game catch sums. Only Jones' yardage was in the same sphere, though. Draft classmate Lamb had 480 catches and 6,118 yards across his initial 79 appearances.

That's where Jefferson's epic entrance turns to lore. What he's managed yardage-wise via his first 502 catches is preternatural, seen once before (from Jones) on a slightly lesser scale and never in the history of the Vikings – or anything remotely close to it. In 79 games, Jefferson has stockpiled 7,557 yards. He has hauled in 116 explosives (receptions of 20 or more yards); Twelve of his 41 touchdown grabs can be characterized as long, which we classified as 30-plus yards; he's netted 53 receptions in the red zone, and clutched 10 chain-moving catches on fourth down, including one that will live in our heads in perpetuity.

"He does a great job of making things look like they're not," recently retired cornerback Patrick Peterson said. "When I was coming up (in the professional ranks) watching film, I used to always tell myself, 'Don't believe the receiver's illusion.' He's a guy that presents a lot of illusion – and he gets guys to fall for it."

While longevity and steady output will determine Jefferson's Pro Football Hall of Fame candidacy when it's all said and done, the beginning of his marriage to the NFL is deserving of a miniature bronze bust. His 95.7 career receiving yards per game is italicized and colored gold by Pro Football Reference to show he's not merely the active leader but the all-time record holder, and eight yards in front of the 2^nd player.

"I've called the Vikings about a handful of players, but none like [Jefferson]," Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter said in reference to phoning former General Manager Rick Spielman after five days of bonding with Jefferson in the 2020 pre-draft process. "He had a great deal of confidence, and I know receivers – I know when some of it is fake. He had, really, a genuine confidence in his ability to be a big-time player."

Vikings receivers coach Keenan McCardell observed shades of Jefferson in football giants of yesteryear. But his game is peerless. His hand-eye coordination is "really, really unbelievable," McCardell said. Stuff Jefferson does leaves McCardell in awe, like, "All right, here we go. What is he gonna give us this week?"

"He's one-of-one," McCardell expressed with the utmost conviction. "He's different. He has some traits of a lot of different people, but it could never be two traits [because] he has his own traits. I mean, everybody's gonna be looking for a Justin Jefferson, as everybody used to be looking for a Randy Moss or back in the day, a Jerry Rice. You know? [Teams think], 'I need a 'Randy Moss.' I need a 'Jerry Rice.' I need a 'T.O. [Terrell Owens]' – those generational-type receivers. You're looking at one. He's that type of guy."

Same as his route running, Jefferson is elegantly striding a path that's unprecedented in 64-plus seasons of Vikings football. His fourth catch of 2025 propelled him past Steve Jordan and into fourth place on the franchise's receptions leaderboard. He entered his sixth season 39 shy of Adam Thielen, who began his second act with Minnesota with two grabs through two games. Eighty-six more – a feasible in-his-prime total for 2025 – will spring Jefferson over Moss and officially put Carter's club record of 1,004 on watch.

That's not all. Jefferson, 26, is amidst a tear that is virtually foreign to all football historians.

Since 2021, the two-time First-Team All-Pro has compiled three seasons of at least 1,500 receiving yards. That's tied already for the second-most campaigns in football annals, linking Jefferson to Antonio Brown, Jones and Gold Jackets Andre Johnson and Marvin Harrison, Sr. The lone player with more is Rice, with the caveat that he recorded four during a 10-season peak (1986-95), unlike Jefferson's five-season sprint.

"He has the intangibles that the greatest have," said Carter, "and he's trying to get better."

Considering that stats are fungible, and records are set for the purpose of being shattered, it honestly feels like a disservice to dissect the first 79 games and 502 catches of Jefferson's career by the numbers.

Instead, let's do it by his brilliance. Let's appreciate the enigmatic player and hear from "Jets" himself, along with reputable witnesses of his transcendence from scrawny recruit to national champion on one of the most prolific college teams of all-time, to the fifth – fifth! – receiver selected in the 2020 NFL Draft and what seems like unanimous acceptance, now, as the toughest-to-guard football player on the planet.

'In a league of his own'

The man upstairs never makes a mistake.

McCardell, awaiting his final turn as Jacksonville's receivers coach in 2020, saw Jefferson work out at the combine and was convinced the Jaguars would take him with one of their two first-rounders that year. His two takeaways were Jefferson "has the exact same body type as Jalen Ramsey" and "he can flat play."

"I know what the Jags franchise thought of Jalen when they drafted him, and they were like, 'What?' I said, this kid looks exactly like him," McCardell recalled, distinguishing similar posture and long limbs. "Me and most of the offensive coaches and Jay Gruden, our offensive coordinator, were all locked in on Justin being the second of our [two] first-round picks. We were like, 'All right, we're finna get this kid.' "

In the end, Jacksonville leadership decided on the receiver's teammate, LSU outside linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson, two slots before Spielman and Vikings brass celebrated its submission of Jefferson's name card.

"The man upstairs must have known that I wanted to coach him," McCardell quipped after tracing the dots of Jacksonville dismissing its staff to Mike Zimmer hiring him. "I guess, the rest has been history."

History, quite literally.

Jefferson tallied two catches for 26 yards in his debut Sept. 13, 2020, against rival Green Bay. The next week, he nabbed all three of his targets for 44 yards at Indianapolis. After that, in his first career start, he sketched his initial masterpiece, with seven receptions for 175 yards and a 71-yard stunner (more on that later) in a hollowed-out U.S. Bank Stadium. The Week 3 performance catalyzed his Vikings and NFL record-setting rookie year in which he silenced doubters week after week in generally silent stadiums.

Once pandemic measures whittled and throngs of fans fully returned in his sophomore NFL season, Jefferson coolly raised his game in the form of a 108-1,616-10 receiving line and another Pro Bowl berth.

It was the tip of the iceberg.

In 2022, Jefferson burned defenses: 10 games topping 100 yards for the most in a Vikings season; eight averaging at least 15 yards per reception; six with 10 or more catches; and a whopping 223 yards to claim the team record in a regular-season outing. Naturally, his Offensive Player of the Year Award and fifth-place finish on the MVP ballot forced defensive coordinators to treat him differently than anyone.

An answer to Jefferson, however, is a temporary fix.

"The first two years he was just running around out there, running like he's a young doe that just came out of mama's womb – running around not understanding what people were trying to do to him," McCardell reflected on Jefferson's maturation. "Now he's really focusing on how people are trying to play him, how he needs to win. He has really good input on what he likes [and] what he sees. That's a big thing for him because he faces so many coverages. I would say 75-80 percent of the time he's doubled."

Moving Jefferson around the formation is a counter to that issue.

"He's so smart, so K.O. [Head Coach Kevin O'Connell] has that flexibility to put him in the backfield, put him in the slot, put him at X, put him at Z, so that people have a harder time [taking] him out of the game," said Carter, magnifying the receiver's aptness in sussing out coverages centered on stopping him. "All those things are the reason why he's one of the best that will have ever played in Vikings history."

Stats and alignment aside, though – what makes him so … grand?

First and foremost, a typical Jefferson rep is frontloaded with nuance.

"He does a great move to get the guy to widen with him because of the threat of him going vertical, and then he slips back up underneath with great footwork, like, pop, pop – great footwork – 1-2 footwork to get back inside. And then the most important, and one of the best things that I like about him is when he gets to the top [of his route] he has unbelievable shiftiness or as I call it a great wiggle at the top to move a guy that's really double-teaming him about 12 or 15 yards downfield," McCardell said. "That's kind of a picture of what he sees all the time and what he has to do. And I think he does it the best in the league."

Peterson deemed Jefferson's setup of routes "unique." But how so? The receiver chops grass with an elongated gait that is "really, really smooth" and yet he can stop on a dime, sink his hips to transition and then accelerate in a snap. In the simplest terms, defensive backs aren't used to seeing Jefferson's finesse.

"They're always taught to keep it tight," Peterson said of wideouts' movement styles. "That's why it makes it so hard to guard him, because his body is so lanky. It's going in so many different directions."

"Justin, as far as the way he runs his routes, is in a league of his own right now," added Peterson, who was able to conjure a single comparison. "A guy who I think he reminds me of is (former Buffalo Bills playmaker) Stevie Johnson. Just the way he's able to set up routes; the way he uses his length to try to get defensive backs to go one way and the next thing you know he's going in a whole 'nother direction."

Carter said Jets "has several different gears that he can play at" and each one is fast. The Vikings Legend likened Jefferson's stride length and quickness – a combination that is "very, very hard" to come by because the former is associated with height and the latter to a lower center of gravity – to Hall of Famer Isaac Bruce, a serious threat in the St. Louis Rams offense nicknamed "The Greatest Show on Turf."

A blanket statement courtesy McCardell verifies the fear that Jefferson makes defenders feel.

"I guarantee you, that guy does not wanna be on ESPN with [Justin] running by him," he said. "The stride length makes the defender look at him like, 'Oh man, he's closing the cushion on me. I have to back up.' "

Except, Jefferson's course is not often linear. He weaves and bops, and weaves again. He goes 0-60 like a McMurtry Spéirling Pure and deceives the naked eye with doctorate-level breaks. He runs with grace, with zero wasted effort, and makes simple catches look spectacular. And spectacular catches look simple.

In a five-part evaluation of the position focused on 1) the release, 2) the top of the route, 3) the catch point, 4) big-play production, and 5) running sans the ball, Carter coined Jefferson "elite" in all five areas.

Extraordinarily, his competitiveness trumps every skill.

"It's crazy, he thinks he's the underdog all the time," McCardell admired. "It pushes him over the edge."

"He has that kill switch," Peterson said. "Like, he's super, super chill, mild-mannered when he's off the field, but when he puts the helmet on and it's time to go to work, he turns into a whole different person.

"He wants to win and comes from winning so that's the only thing he's comfortable with," Peterson continued. "I'm sure he brings that out of his teammates as well, when they see the work that he puts in; they see how he comes to the office and practice, and his attention to details in the film room. Those are the traits that are going to take him a long way. And I'm sure guys are going to be willing to follow him."

Game days resonate to the zenith degree for McCardell, a 17-year NFL veteran who is so fond of coaching Jets, because ultra-violet flames in the star's spirit spark memories of his own on-field attitude.

"I know when the lights come on I got the best player in the league," McCardell, a Super Bowl Champion with the 2002 Buccaneers, enunciated with his chest. "He's the most competitive player I've ever seen."

A landmark breakdown

There's bigger goals, obviously, but McCardell pointed out 500 is "nothing to shake your hat at."

"I've been around so many of them, it's like, I think he should have more already," the coach with 883 receptions himself vocalized. "I think he should cherish 500, but at the same time, it's just a checkpoint.

"The finish line should be in the Hall of Fame and that could [involve] 1,200 — 1,400 catches," McCardell elaborated. "I think that's how he's going to look at it. I mean, he knows where he's at. The most elusive goal for [Justin] right now is winning a Super Bowl. I think that's the one thing that he wants in his heart."

To be sure, Jefferson's magnificent production benefits that cause.

"Even after talking to Justin and working out some with him this summer, he knows this is just the beginning," Carter communicated with certainty. "Everyone's career has an opportunity to either go flat, go up, or continue to go up – and he has that type of ability that he can keep building on his game."

Carter is embracing Jefferson's potential to "one day, maybe be the receptions leader for the Vikings. I think a guy has over a thousand," he said with a coy gladness. "[That's a milestone] he is earmarked for, but you must recognize 500 because 500 is still a lot. That's a lot of footballs in a short period of time."

Twelve players before Jefferson surpassed the 500-catch barrier at some point in their first six NFL seasons. The record of 564 in that window belongs to another LSU product, Jarvis Landry. From a zoomed-out perspective, Jefferson, technically, is 1 of 180 players with at least 500 career receptions.

The following 10, however, confirm he is in truth one of a kind.

Writer's Note: Clearly, far more than 1.99 percent of Jefferson's 500 career catches qualify as special. In reporting this story, though, I wanted to trim the pool of uncommon plays. And so after closely reviewing every single reception this summer (special thanks to the Vikings football video department for the assist, by the way), I presented a highlight reel of 10 to Jefferson and asked him specific questions about each.

The First Griddy | 2020 Week 3: Sept. 27 vs. Titans | Career Catch No. 12

One common denominator for all walks of life is the beginning of something – namely figuring how, when and where to start – is difficult. It's at least supposed to be. But not the dawn of Jefferson's pro story. After playing a reserve role in Week 1 and Week 2, Jefferson penciled in as a starter for the first time at home against Tennessee. His 12^th catch properly introduced his flair and famous celly to the NFL.

Jefferson called it a "memory that will last forever."

"I just felt it was my time to come to the scene," he beamed, rewatching his 71-yard breakthrough touchdown. "I wanted to go out with a bang [in my first start] – this was definitely a way to go out.

"It was COVID, so we didn't have any fans," he added, giggling at the debut of his iconic TD dance. "I couldn't look into the stands or anything, so getting a reaction from my teammates, looking over to the sideline, hearing their reaction, seeing them being fired up and excited about that play – it was crazy!"

The Flex | 2021 Week 10: Nov. 14 at Chargers | No. 139

Need 20 yards? Jefferson will shimmy, accelerate, drop his mass and churn his feet for 21 – and then flex! There are synonyms for Jefferson's lean and gangly frame, and none are intimidating. But how he deals with contact and moves after the catch is the opposite. He's iron-willed in action, plucky and passionate.

"This is 'bully ball,' " Jefferson said. "You already know football is a game of inches, so every inch that you can get, every yard you can get to gain that advantage; and second-and-20, that's tough to convert.

"People look at me and don't expect me to be that strong, physical receiver, and I like to show that whenever I can," he continued with his smile expanding. "This is good, going against a safety, linebacker. That was a moment for me to show everybody that I'm big; I might look small, but I'm big at heart."

The Cheese Grater | 2021 Week 11: Nov. 21 vs. Packers | No. 150

What's sweeter than beating man coverage for six? Doing it on third down with two minutes left – against archrival Green Bay, via a back-shoulder heave, for catch No. 7 of a 169-yard outburst.

"This is what the Vikings vs. [Packers] is," Jefferson affirmed, cherishing the playback of Kirk Cousins beating pressure with an on-the-spot lob that required No. 18 to swirl his body mid-air for the catch.

Jefferson is not sure what went through his head when he sprang to his feet past the pylon, only that there was a flood of emotion: "I feel like everybody felt like that after I scored that touchdown," he said.

The 'Get Off' | 2022 Week 4: Oct. 2 vs. Saints in London | No. 224

A matchup with a top-tier cornerback? Jefferson lives for that. He ran roughshod around Marshon Lattimore, who was regarded as a Top 100 player by his peers when Lattimore shadowed him in 2022. Jets snared seven of his 10 catches, in a 28-25 win, with the four-time Pro Bowl player defending him. His step-through into a defiant walk on his 10^th probably gets replayed as much as Allen Iverson's step-over in the 2001 NBA Finals if the setting was the Super Bowl, not a London Game that aired early stateside.

The formula for busting loose on a straight vertical is "keeping him guessing, not allowing him to get any hands on me to slow me down," Jefferson explained – then it's off to the races. "There's so many different routes I run off these releases, so making sure he doesn't know what I'm going to run [is key].

"I definitely felt like A.I. with him holding my foot at the end," he said excitedly, recalling he made a social post after to juxtapose the hooper's strut. "That swagger after the play is something I live for."

The Fourth-and-Forever | 2022 Week 10: Nov. 13 at Bills | No. 261

There's certainly something symbolic about No. 18's deeds three years ago on a fourth-and-18 at Buffalo. With Stefon Diggs, the elite receiver in his own right that Jefferson essentially replaced, on the other sideline, Jefferson imitated Odell Beckham, Jr.'s, iconic, reclining, one-handed grab, but with contention.

"If I drop this ball, the game is pretty much over," Jefferson said with a directness that suppressed the difficulty of such a catch. "It's not pressure. It's just understanding that at this point I'm the only chance."

The leadup to the signature moment was as much of a rush. Cousins approached Jefferson and said " 'Hey, we need a play right here. I'm coming to you. It's for sure, I'm throwing you this ball,' " Jets retold.

And then it happened.

"I'm like, 'OK, I caught it, on to the next play! We've gotta win the game!' But seeing it afterwards and seeing the reactions, seeing how I moved in the air, seeing me hold the ball all the way to the ground, definitely one of my craziest catches," Jefferson said. "Just thinking about that whole process – crazy!

"It's all on making the play at the end of the day. I wouldn't [have suggested] me going up with one hand, but everything happens for a reason," Jefferson analyzed. "God definitely was with me. For [the DB] to hold the ball up, for me to take it out of his hands. Everything. It's so unreal to really think about."

The Fake-Out | 2022 Week 15: Dec. 17 vs. Colts | No. 303

Stephon Gilmore, the 2019 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, has Hall of Fame-caliber credentials. Jefferson does too. Before becoming teammates in 2024, the receiver shook the corner with head and hip fakes, when he was soloed up on the border for the Colts, to aid the largest comeback in NFL history.

The snappy six-point route by Jefferson in the 33-point turnaround was borrowed from the Rams and Cooper Kupp and implemented by O'Connell in the Vikings offense when he left his Los Angeles post.

"We knew we were going to get that man-to-man and we had been running the short version of that route, just coming in and not breaking out, so I just mirrored that up," Jefferson detailed the third-down touchdown exchange that took advantage of Gilmore's anticipation. "It definitely was a pretty sick play."

They reminisced about it when 'Gilly' came to Minnesota.

"[Stephon] said — [actually] I ain't gonna tell you what he said," Jefferson cracked himself up.

Suppose it stays in the locker room.

The Jump Ball | 2023 Week 16: Dec. 24 vs. Lions | No. 375

Picture the playground. The girl you're trying to impress is leaning against the chain link fence, watching you react to shrieks of "100! Dead!" and "500! Alive!" Recess is over now. Jefferson is stationed at Minnesota's 44, and six arms reach sky high. Everyone is impressed, but not surprised, by the outcome.

It was a mimic of "Three Flies Up" Jefferson judged.

On a third-and-27, with the Vikings and backup quarterback Nick Mullens clawing and scratching to upend the Lions, Jets tapped into his height, athleticism and hops to elevate and bring down a prayer.

"It's all about jumping vertically and not backwards and just meeting the ball at the highest point, and then once the ball hits the hands just squeeze it as hard as possible," the 6-foot-1, 195-pound receiver conveyed. "Plays like that create momentum, they create excitement for the offense to lead us to score. So I always try to be that person that the offense can rely on to go up and make a big play like that."

The Photo Finish | 2024 Week 2: Sept. 15 vs. 49ers | No. 399

Tracking a pass some 50 odd yards in the air is no easy feat. Neither is cutting in a blink and reversing field at track speed. Jefferson's 97-yard reception was heart-stopping from starting blocks to finish line.

"It always is a dream to go 99, 98, 97 yards," he expressed, fawning over his route (a corner-post) along with O'Connell's nerve to call a longer-developing play backed up, and Jalen Nailor's assist at the tail end.

One word to summarize it all: "Tired!" Jefferson shouted.

"But at this moment," he said, watching himself cross the stripe of white paint 97 yards later, "I'm hyped. I still hit the Griddy. I'm still turnt up. But when I got to that sideline, I needed that oxygen. … I definitely have a history of getting tackled at the 5-, 10-yard line, so I definitely wanted to get into the end zone."

The Sleight Hand | 2024 Week 8: Oct. 24 at Rams | No. 433

Halfway through the third quarter of Minnesota's game on Thursday Night Football at SoFi Stadium, Sam Darnold beelined a go-ball into Jefferson's breadbasket. It could have been a routine connection, except Jefferson had access to a single "bread stick" (cornerback Darious Williams had Jefferson's right arm pinned at his hip as the arcing pass descended). Reflexively, Jets ricocheted the throw off his left wrist. The ball's speed caused it to glide onto Jefferson's chest plate and shoulder pad. Then he freed his dominant hand. Careening out of bounds, he clenched to make a catch, the ball snug under his earhole.

"This is a dot," Jefferson said, deflecting merit to Darnold.

A double whammy then – perfect placement on the pass and concentration on the one-handed catch.

"Sometimes you can rehearse them, but honestly I feel like they just come naturally," he noted. "You don't really think a ball is going to come to you like, 'All right I'm going to catch this one-handed.' It's more a reaction and the feel for the ball. This play, honestly, I didn't even see it until the last minute."

Jefferson kept his hands and eyes alive, though, controlled it with his off-arm and fit his feet in bounds.

It was spectacular by definition but not flawless by Jefferson's standard: "If I would have caught that clean, I would have dragged him into the end zone, so those are definitely the plays I like to critique myself on and think that I could do better," he admitted. "[I'm] hard on myself on those types of plays."

Flight Path | 2024 Week 16: Dec. 22 at Seahawks | No. 484

Christmas came early in the Pacific Northwest. With minutes dwindling and the Vikings down four at Seattle, the shrewd receiver made an intuitive adjustment to his route, releasing inside then drifting out.

"The play itself is really for me to get width," Jefferson commented. "But [I saw] the Cover 2 corner and the Cover 2 safety not getting over toward my side enough" so he kept widening and turned for the ball.

Darnold dodged pressure and threw Jefferson away from the safety, so that he could "spin 360, stay on my feet and get in the end zone." He added: "That definitely is not all credit to me. That's credit to Sam."

Reality over fantasy

Even the silver screen would struggle to accurately capture Jefferson's ascent.

"The time I think he's outdone himself," said McCardell, "he does something else."

"Like the Buffalo game," he added with a lilt of amazement. "I was like, 'How in the heck did you make that catch, young man?' I probably jumped on the sideline higher than him 'cause I'm thinking, 'You gotta go up!' I'm telling myself, 'You gotta go up Jets! And jump!' He does and I'm like, 'Ohhh, shucks!'"

That one ranked high on the impossible meter, a made-up phrase that's meaningless to Jefferson.

In an almost unfathomable spin – unless you've experienced Jefferson's swagger up close or sat with him and gauged his psyche – get this: his entire career was manifested when he was a "puppy," Peterson said.

The future Hall of Famer roomed and became best friends with one of Justin's older brothers, Jordan, at LSU. The youngest Jefferson was around frequently, even roleplaying as a receiver snatching touchdowns from his quarterback brother, who went 24-8 as a starter and roared the Tigers to an 11-2 mark in 2010.

"That's actually what made [playing for the Vikings] so surreal, because everything that he pretty much said that he was gonna do back in '08 and '09, it all came true," Peterson remarked. "Being his teammate and watching how hard he worked, I remembered that's how he was after the games in front of the WCA (West Campus Apartments), catching the ball with one hand, talking about when he gets to high school what he's gonna do, when he gets to college what he's gonna do. Now he's doing all those same things."

And there's no sight of his ceiling. Every next step, leap and catch exceeds the swankiest script. Carter, harking back to his impromptu call with Spielman, said, "It was like all this stuff was meant to happen."

It's not at all wild to believe it was indeed.

"Every kid has a dream of being a superstar, being an NFL player and being on this platform, but there's millions of people that don't get that opportunity or don't get to live that dream," Jefferson said humbly. "So for me to manifest it, to be outside throwing the ball up to myself … hard work definitely pays off.

"No one had to tell me to go and put the work in. I went out there and did it on my own," he added, before pausing and laughing in genuine amusement. "It feels like everything happened for a reason, and I was made or meant to be in this position. It's definitely a blessing and so unreal to be in this situation."

More milestones are inevitable for Jefferson as he catches up to the greatness that preceded him.

"Along the way," Carter preached, "I'd like to see him at 750. I'd like to see when he gets to 900. I can't wait to see him at a thousand. Can't wait to be at the parade when we win the Super Bowl. Can't wait to be on the sideline when the confetti drops on us for the Super Bowl. I can't wait to one day give him a Gold Jacket, man, like we got a lot of things we're gonna be doing, but 500 is just one of them. And he's doing all the right things that will allow what I'm talking about not to be a fantasy but be his reality."