Randy Moss finally has a buddy in his previously lonely club o’ one.
A.J. Green put on yet another stellar performance for the Bengals on Sunday in their game against the Cleveland Browns, racking up 5 receptions for 128 yards and a touchdown. Not only did he do his part to help his team to the 37-3 win, but he surpassed 1,000 yards receiving on the season; something that he has done every year that he has been in the pros. As it turns out, the only otherwide receiver in NFL history to catch for 1,000 yards in each of their first five seasons is none other than Moss.
In fact, it wasn’t until his seventh NFL season that Moss caught for fewer than 1,000 yards. He missed three games during that 2004 season and finished with 767 yards and 13 touchdowns. It is an incredibly difficult milestone to achieve, especially considering just how much talent at the wideout position has come through the NFL over the years. So for A.J. Green to be just the second to ever do it is not just a commendable; it’s historical.
There was certainly no previous doubt that Green is one of the best in the business right now, but this achievement puts his level of productivity into even clearer focus. This isn’t just some fluky statistic that can be exaggerated to seem more relevent than it really is. In order to do what only Green and Moss have done, they had to stay healthy for a majority of every regular season, they had to be consistent and resilient both physically and mentally, and they had to overcome the inevitable, understandable failures of their teammates by continuing to be the best player on the field no matter what.
Just to put it into even better perspective, Randy Moss finished his career with 15,292 receiving yards in 14 seasons. A.J. Green currently has 5,911 yards with four games left in the regular season. He is currently averaging 94 yards receiving per game in 2015, which means he is on pace to finish with 1,413 yards receiving for the regular season.
Taking all of that into consideration, Green is on pace to finish a 14-season career with 17,603 yards receiving; if he were to continue to average just over 1,200 yards per season. Now obviously it is likely that he will have some down seasons, just as Moss did. Even if he doesn’t surpass Moss, he has a very good chance to crack the top five in all-time career receiving yards if he continues at his current rate of productivity and success.
Now let’s just hope for Green’s sake that he can replicate Moss’ late-career trajectory as well, since it never hurts to spend the twilight of your prime playing with a quarterback like Tom Brady.
#BFFS