MINNEAPOLIS — Justin Jefferson is pretty much 1 of 1.
He's also the fourth player in NFL history to record 1,000 yards in each of his first five seasons.
Jefferson entered Sunday's Vikings game against the Arizona Cardinals needing 61 yards to reach quad digits in Minnesota's 12th game of 2024.
The phenom delivered that and then some, despite a slow start.
He joined Pro Football Hall of Famer and Vikings Ring of Honor member Randy Moss (six seasons from 1998-2003), A.J. Green (2011-15) and Mike Evans (10 seasons from 2014-2023 so far) in reaching that milestone.
Jefferson came up with two catches on Minnesota's drive in the fourth quarter to take a 23-22 lead with 1:13 remaining and finished with 99 yards on seven catches.
After opening that possession with a 6-yard reception, Jefferson was able to find a spot in the Cardinals zone defense, enabling a clutch pass from Sam Darnold to convert fourth-and-5 just before the 2-minute warning.
"Just seeing the coverage of the defense, and of course, with the route schemes, I kind of figured that I was going to be open on that play," Jefferson said. "But it was just great execution from everyone, great execution from Sam to find me in that window to give me the ball for the first down."
He lamented being a yard shy of his 33rd career game with 100 receiving yards but was quite pleased with the narrow victory that improved the Vikings to 10-2 on the season.
Jefferson's first catch of the day opened a drive that began with 6:01 remaining in the first half. The quick throw gained 9 and moved him past Kyle Rudolph (453 career receptions) for sixth on the Vikings all-time receptions leaderboard.
His second popped for a gain of 23 four plays later to move Minnesota into field goal range. Minnesota tied the game at 6 with 1:12 remaining, but Arizona (6-6) answered immediately with another field goal for a 9-6 halftime lead.
The Vikings targeted Jefferson on their first snap of the second half, and he drew a pass interference penalty against Sean Murphy-Bunting for 28 yards.
The Cardinals continued causing problems for Minnesota, however, until late in the third quarter when a 15-yard catch by Jefferson was one of three consecutive plays to gain at least 15. Jalen Nailor began that drive with 18, and Cam Akers followed with an 18-yard run before the strike to Jefferson that helped set up Minnesota's first touchdown of the day, a 4-yard pass from Darnold to Johnny Mundt to make it 19-13 Cardinals with 1:17 remaining in the third quarter.
Another big one — a 30-yarder for Minnesota's longest reception of the game — erased a second-and-14 early in the fourth quarter and put him over 1,000 for the season with five games to play.
