Top 5 candidates to break Calvin Johnson's receiving yardage record in 2024

2. Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins

Hill led the league in receiving yards last year (1,799), and he has topped 1,700 yards in back-to-back seasons. At 30 years old he has plenty of juice left in his legs, and with a combination of elite speed and route running chops he's a big play waiting to happen every time he catches the ball. He has built great rapport with Tua Tagovailoa, as the Dolphins' signal caller has grown more comfortable, and Dolphins' head coach Mike McDaniel is one of the best designers of offense around.

Hill missed one game last year, and still finished just a whisper short of 1,800 yards. A full 17 games, with Week 18 hopefully meaning something to the Dolphins, would make a run at 2,000 yards possible.

1. Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings

Going into last season, Adam Schein (writing for NFL.com) had a bold prediction that Jefferson would set the new single-season receiving yards record.

But it was not to be. Jefferson missed seven games with a hamstring injury. In the 10 games he played, he had 68 catches for 1,074 yards. That 17-game pace is "only" 1,826 yards, but a chest injury removed him from his first game back after 13 snaps. Take that game out (two catches for 27 yards), and Jefferson's per-game average in his other nine games was 116.3 yards (a 1,977-yard pace over 17 games).

The Vikings lost Kirk Cousins in free agency. The combination of Sam Darnold and rookie J.J. McCarthy looks like a big downgrade. But Jefferson proved himself to be fully immune to who his quarterback is late last year, producing big games with Nick Mullens under center.

If this were a ranking of current NFL wide receivers who could break Johnson's single-season yardage record at any time, Jefferson might also be at the top. Strictly for this year though, he edges out Hill for the No. 1 spot and the stars are well-aligned for him to make a legit run at setting the new record.