While Tom Brady has gotten a lot of attention with the incredible start he’s had this season (see our article here), a pair of wide receivers are also on pace for record seasons. Wes Welker is putting up incredible numbers for receptions and yardage, and Calvin Johnson is on pace for the single season touchdown record.
Johnson, aka Megatron (who is also notable for having, by-far, the coolest nickname in the NFL right now) has 16 receptions for 225 yards and 6 touchdowns through three games. He’s scored 2 touchdowns in each of the Lions first three games, the first player in NFL history to accomplish that.
He’s on pace for 85 receptions for 1,200 yards and 32 touchdowns, which would shatter the single season record set by Randy Moss in 2007 of 23 touchdowns.
Welker is putting up impressive numbers as well, particularly after catching everything Brady threw remotely near him last week. Welker has 31 receptions for 458 yards and 4 touchdowns through three games. At that pace, he would catch an astronomical 165 passes for 2,442 yards, shattering both the receptions and yardage record for a single season.
The record for most pass receptions in a season is held by Marvin Harrison at 143 in 2002, a year where he had 6 consecutive games with 9 or more receptions.
The record for most receiving yards in a season is 1,848 by the incomparable Jerry Rice in 1995. As an interesting side note, the second most receiving yards ever in a season was 1,781 by Isaac Bruce, also in 1995. Unfortunately for Bruce, although he caught the second most receiving yards ever, he didn’t even lead the league for that year.
Now, to be fair, it’s only three games so projecting these numbers out to 16 games is dicey at best. But we can comfortably say that both Welker and Megatron are off to exceptionally good starts.
