Keenan Allen became the fastest player in NFL history to reach 1000 receptions yesterday. It only took the Los Angeles Chargers’ wideout 159 games to eclipse the mark. This achievement quickly caught the attention of former stars like Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson, who couldn’t help but look back at their own careers and wonder how they never hit that mark.
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With this milestone, Allen also climbed to 15th on the all-time receptions list, passing Hines Ward, who retired with exactly 1,000 catches. He now sits just behind Travis Kelce, who has 1,019. Among the top 15, eight receivers are Hall of Famers, making Allen’s company as elite as it gets.
So naturally, Johnson and Sharpe were both in awe of the feat.
“A thousand? Man, that’s crazy,” Johnson said on Nightcap. “How many catches you got, Unc?”
“815,” Sharpe responded.
Naturally, that led the two into a conversation about how different the league was back in their day. There was less pre-snap motion, fewer screens, and not nearly as many short-yardage throws, which made it much tougher for receivers in their era to rack up big catch numbers.
When Johnson heard how many career receptions he finished with, he laughed and said he might need to come out of retirement.
“What do I got? I need to come back and play,” Johnson asked.
“You got 766,” Sharpe noted.
“That’s it? I was sorry as hell, Unc. Goddamn,” Johnson joked.
766 is still a very respectable career total. It comes in at 45th on the all-time list, around guys like Marshall Faulk, Zach Ertz, and Roddy White. But it clearly wasn’t the total Johnson thought he finished with.
That’s when Sharpe tried to make his co-host feel better by professing that Allen’s 1000 catch feat will soon become routine.
“Now, it’s going to be routine. If you don’t have 1000 catches now, people are going to think you were a bum, if you’re a receiver,” Sharpe said.
This led Johnson to make a good point.“People also need to understand that the game has changed,” he retorted.
As we mentioned earlier, the NFL has changed drastically when it comes to modern-day passing plays. Back when Sharpe and Johnson caught passes, the league mostly had a run-first mentality that focused on taking care of the ball. But now, teams sling the ball around as much as they can, trying to put up massive amounts of points.
Because of this, players like Allen have emerged with dominant reception numbers. And he’s not the only one. DeAndre Hopkins is right behind him, just 9 catches away from 1000.
Not to mention, Davante Adams will soon hit the figure as well, currently at 979. All in all, it shows that the current landscape of passing in the NFL has swung hard in the direction of higher reception totals. So, Johnson really shouldn’t feel that bad.
