Calvin Johnson reflects on NFL receiving record, who can break it
· Yahoo Sports
Calvin Johnson has held the NFL single-season receiving record for 14 years, but the former Detroit Lions receiver thinks it’s only “a matter of time” before someone breaks it.
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“If they go to 18 – well, should we say when they go to 18 games?” Johnson said at his fourth annual celebrity golf outing Monday, June 15, at The Cardinal at St. John's. “When they go to 18 games it’s no doubt about it. Hands down.”
Johnson caught 122 passes for 1,964 yards in his historic 2012 season to break a record Jerry Rice held for 17 years.
Both Johnson and Rice, who had 1,848 yards receiving in 1995 with the San Francisco 49ers, played 16-game schedules, and Johnson said he expected his record to fall when a string of challengers approached it immediately after the NFL went to 17 games in 2021.
Cooper Kupp had 1,947 yards with the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, Justin Jefferson went for 1,809 yards in 2022, Tyreek Hill had 1,799 yards in 2023 and Jaxon Smith-Njigba had 1,793 yards last season.
Kupp, Jefferson, Hill and Smith-Njigba rank second, sixth, seventh and eighth on the single-season receiving list, respectively.
The NFL could go to an 18-game regular season under the next collective bargaining agreement.
“Cooper was close. I thought he was going to break it, honestly,” Johnson said. “But yeah, you never know. You got to have a good start. It’s hard to pick it up late in the season. You got to get off to a good start, you got to maintain that good pace and then you got to finish strong. I think that’s the key if you’re going to break the record, you got to start strong. You got to keep it up in the middle. You ain’t got to kill it in the middle, but you got to keep up that pace a little bit but you got to finish strong. You got to have a strong start and strong finish to the season in order to get that record.”
More than the record itself, Johnson said he still cherishes the moment he broke it, when he handed the ball to his father, Calvin Johnson Sr., in celebration on the sideline and watched a congratulatory message from Rice play on the scoreboard at Ford Field.
Johnson said he’ll send a similar message to whoever breaks his record, if he can’t attend the game in person. And of the receivers at the top of today’s game, he said he thinks Puka Nacua has the best chance to break his record and maybe reach 2,000 yards.
“He’s still got Matthew [Stafford] so I think he’s got a shot,” Johnson said of his quarterback with the Lions in his 1,964-yard season. “If he stays healthy, that dude’s a killer out there. He’s a definite No. 1. Who else? Help me out.”
Asked if he thought Jefferson still had a chance to pass it, Johnson said, “I thought he could have been one but they messed up his quarterback situation when they brought in my man from Michigan [J.J. McCarthy] when they had [Sam] Darnold just win them 14 games. I hate seeing people get fired but people get fired when stuff like that happens.”
“He’s got the talent,” Johnson said of Jefferson. “What year is he in? Like six or seven? I mean, he needs to do it soon. He needs to do it soon, probably.”
Johnson was 27 years old when he set the record, the same age Jefferson will be this season.
Nacua, 25, is entering his fourth NFL season; Johnson didn’t set the record until Year 6.
“That would be kind of dope [if Stafford helped Nacua break my record],” Johnson said. “I’d have to go to that game if he did that, cause I like Puka. He’s getting some crap out of his system that’s just a young guy, just learning, but I think he’s an awesome, dynamic receiver.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Calvin Johnson reflects on NFL receiving record, who can break it