Randy Moss is the most electrifying wide receiver in NFL history, but not even The Freak can say he’s done what Adam Thielen is doing with the Vikings this season.
In fact, Thielen is the only player in the modern era of the NFL (since 1970) with seven straight 100-yard receiving games to start a season. What’s even crazier is that Thielen is just two 100-yard games from equaling Randy Moss’s career high for 100-yard games in a season.
Moss had nine games with at least 100 yards in his record-setting 2007 season with the Patriots, when he finished with 98 catches for 1,493 yards and 23 touchdowns. The most 100-yard games Moss had in any season with the Vikings was eight in 2003.
Thielen’s hot start got us wondering: how does his incredible seven games compare to the best seven-game stretch of Moss’s career?
To answer it fairly, we had to remove Moss’s ’07 season from contention because it was so dominant. His best seasons outside of his remarkable year with Tom Brady came in Minnesota, and he had three stunning stretches of seven games to consider.
- 1998 games 10-16: 37 catches, 714 yards, 11 touchdowns
- 2001 games 7-13: 46 catches, 786 yards, 9 touchdowns
- 2003 games 4-9: 50 catches, 821 yards, 9 touchdowns
Thielen has 67 catches, 822 yards and 5 touchdowns this season.
Clearly, the sheer number of receptions Thielen has blows anything Moss did away, and Thielen has Moss in yardage, too. But Moss had some incredible touchdown binges, including 11 scores over the final seven games of his rookie season in 1998.
Of course, we’d be stupid to leave out Cris Carter’s most impressive seven-game stretch, which came in 1995 when he had 64 catches, 784 yards and 11 touchdowns from Nov. 5 to Dec. 18.
Carter’s finish to the 1995 season is probably more impressive than any stretch Moss or any other Vikings receiver has ever had, although he posted a comparable seven-game burst in 1999 when he had 54 catches, 708 yards and 11 touchdowns.
If Thielen starts piling up touchdowns at the rate Moss and Carter did, he’ll put himself among two of the greatest to ever wear purple and gold.
