Tyreek Hill set his sights on Calvin Johnson’s single-season receiving record before the 2023 season. He was ahead of Johnson’s pace for most of the season until an ankle injury held him to four catches for 61 yards against the Titans in Week 14 and kept him out Week 15.
His 1,799 yards led the league but fell 165 short of Johnson’s record.
Johnson caught 122 passes in 16 games when he set the 1,964-yard mark in 2012. Jerry Rice’s 1995 record of 1,848 yards had stood for 17 years before that.
The Hall of Famer knows it’s only a matter of time before someone tops his record.
“I mean, it’s bound to fall at some point the way it’s going, so it is what it is,” Johnson told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I held it down, I don’t know even know how long, over a decade now.”
Rams receiver Cooper Kupp has come the closest in the 17-game era, going for 1,947 yards in 17 games in 2021.
Staying healthy in a 17-game season is the challenge, as Hill found out last year.
“They want more offense, man, so at some point [it’s going to happen],” Johnson said. “You’ve got to be healthy. You’ve got to play really a full 17 now. . . . That’s the key. You got to be healthy. If you can play 17, guys have put up numbers; you’re going to put up numbers. That 17, you get that extra game to put another 150 or 200 [yards].”
