The Minnesota Vikings offense was ugly for most of the night against the Los Angeles Chargers on “Thursday Night Football,” though superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson was as smooth as ever.
Minnesota announced during the first half of the contest that Jefferson eclipsed the 8,000-yard mark for his career. He did so by tallying six catches for 72 yards receiving in the first two quarters in Los Angeles, while needing just 40 yards on the night to hit the milestone.
“8k for J.J.,” the team posted to X, tagging Jefferson’s account in the caption.
Heading into the Vikings’ seventh game of the season, Jefferson had amassed 529 receptions for 7,960 receiving yards and 41 touchdowns in 83 total games (80 starts).
Justin Jefferson Moving Quickly Up the Ranks of NFL’s All-Time Receiving Yards List
GettyMinnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
Jefferson’s yardage tally had him slotted at 121st all-time in NFL history heading into the game Thursday night. Adding 74 yards (on seven catches) to that total, which was Jefferson’s yardage tally late in the fourth quarter, elevated him to 116th on the list.
The league leader in that category is Jerry Rice with 22,895 yards, which is more than 5,400 yards ahead of Larry Fitzgerald in second place and almost 7,000 yards more than Terrell Owens in third.
Jefferson, now 26 years old, is playing in only in the sixth year of his professional career and could presumably play at an elite level for another 10 years or more. For context, Rice played 20 NFL seasons, his last coming at the age of 42.
Rice had the benefit of playing much of his career with future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, including Joe Montana and Steve Young. Meanwhile, Jefferson’s best QB companion to this point has been four-time Pro Bowler Kirk Cousins.
Vikings second-year signal-caller J.J. McCarthy is likely to return to the starting lineup in Week 9 against the Detroit Lions after what will have been seven weeks (six games) sidelined with a high ankle sprain he suffered in Week 2.
It is unclear if McCarthy, just 22 years old and the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 draft, has a high-level NFL future ahead of him. However, if he does, McCarthy could be the second half of the QB-WR tandem that sees Jefferson rise to the upper echelon of the position all-time.
Justin Jefferson Needs Well Over 10 More Years of Elite Production to Get Near Jerry Rice’s Career Games Played
GettyWide receiver Justin Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings.
Jefferson is a four-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro (two first-team selections, two second-team selections).
The only year he failed to earn those honors was 2023, when he missed seven regular season games due to a hamstring strain. Despite that injury, Jefferson still finished that campaign with 68 catches for 1,074 receiving yards and five touchdowns.
One key to Jefferson’s longterm success will be remaining healthy over the course of his career, which is no small feat. Rice played in 303 career games (284 starts), which means Jefferson will need to make 219 more starts beyond Thursday night to match Rice’s output. That equals out to a little less than 13 more full seasons of 17 games each, which is one more contest per year than Rice played during his career.
Jefferson had tallied 34 receptions for 528 yards, though just one score, through six games in 2025 heading into the Vikings’ Week 8 matchup with Chargers.
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