Sportsnaut
Expansion of the regular season in the National Football League was naturally going to bring new single-season NFL records every so often. What we’re seeing this year is a few NFL players who are putting up numbers that would rival some records on a per-game basis from a 16-game season.
As we head into Week 13, there are a few NFL records that will likely be broken by the end of the season. There’s also a few more single-season milestones that at least have a shot at being reached. Let’s examine some of the NFL records that could be broken this season.
If not for a 93-yard performance against the Arizona Cardinals, in which he drew his lowest target total (six) in a month, we might be talking about another single-season NFL record for Jaxon Smith-Njigba. That 93-yard game in the Seattle Seahawks‘ dominant 44-22 win over the Arizona Cardinals, where the Seahawks had a 28-0 lead with two defensive touchdowns early in the second quarter, is the only thing standing in the way of Smith-Njigba having seven consecutive games with 100 receiving yards. The NFL record is eight, held by Calvin Johnson and Adam Thielen. So, Smith-Njigba will just have to take Johnson’s other record.
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Johnson currently holds the NFL record for most receiving yards in a season (1,964), a mark he reached in 2012. Megatron averaged 122.8 receiving yards per game that year, leading the NFL in targets (204, 12.75 per game) and receptions (122, 7.63 per game). Through 11 games, Smith-Njigba is averaging 119.4 receiving yards per game, averaging 9.7 targets and 7.3 receptions per game. For comparison, Johnson had 1,257 receiving yards with 73 receptions on 124 targets in his record-breaking year.
There is plenty of focus right now on the single-season NFL records that might be broken by players. However, the Denver Broncos are also on a historical pace through their first 11 games this year. Coming off the bye, Denver’s defense leads the NFL with 49 sacks and the next closest team (Cleveland Browns) has 42. Those are the only teams with 40-plus sacks right now.
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The Broncos are currently on pace for 76 sacks this season. It would shatter the current record of 72, set by the 1984 Chicago Bears. Regarding Chicago’s record, they averaged 4.5 sacks per game that season, and Denver is averaging approximately 4.5 sacks per game right now. Strengthening the Broncos’ odds of breaking the single-season team record, they still have matchups against the Raiders (41 sacks allowed, second-most in NFL), the Chargers (3.8 sacks per game allowed in last five games), and the Jaguars (3.7 sacks per game allowed since Week 5). Nik Bonitto (9.5), Jonathan Cooper (7.5), and Zach Allen (6) all have a shot at double-digit sacks.
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