Jahan Dotson got his career off to a good start, with a pair of touchdown catches against the Jaguars. Is it time to start pondering whether he might be the best of the rookie receivers?
There were five other wide receivers selected in the first. None of them caught touchdowns. (Drake London had the busiest game, catching 5 passes for 74 yards for Atlanta.) Dotson is undersized but had some monster games at Penn State, and with the best drop rate of the rookie receivers.
Dotson’s game got me wondering. When a player catches multiple touchdowns in his first game, how many of those guys go on to have great careers? I remember Hollywood Brown torching the Dolphins, looking like he was going to be the next DeSean Jackson. Brown hasn’t quite been able to get over the hump.
Randy Moss started his career with a couple of touchdowns against the Bucs, and he went on to be a Hall of Famer.
But let’s check the numbers.
According to the search tools Pro-Football-Reference.com, there have been 12 wide receivers since the merger that have caught 2 TDs in their first game. Of those guys, I would say four went on to be true superstars: Moss, Anquan Boldin, Louis Lipps and John Jefferson. Kenny Golladay and Marquise Brown are the only other active players in this fraternity, and they’ve been pretty good (though Golladay seems to be declining nowadays).
But of these 12, three (and this is almost unbelievable) never caught 4 TDs in a season.
And of the 12, half never had a top-10 season (that’s using PPR scoring).
In the chart below, you’re seeing the receivers who caught 2 TDs in their first game as a pro. The numbers listed with each player aren’t their rookie-season numbers: they’re the stats from the best season of the player’s career (the season where he ranked highest among players at his position).
| TWO TOUCHDOWNS IN FIRST GAME (best season) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Rec | Yards | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 1971 | Ken Burrow, Atl. | 33 | 741 | 6 | 143.6 | 12 |
| 1973 | Mike Siani, Oak. | 45 | 742 | 3 | 137.2 | 11 |
| 1980 | John Jefferson, S.D. | 82 | 1,340 | 13 | 295.6 | 1 |
| 1982 | Charlie Brown, Was. | 32 | 690 | 8 | 149.0 | 3 |
| 1985 | Louis Lipps, Pitt. | 59 | 1,134 | 15 | 264.0 | 1 |
| 2003 | Anquan Boldin, Ari. | 101 | 1,377 | 8 | 290.7 | 3 |
| 2003 | Charles Rogers, Det. | 22 | 243 | 3 | 66.0 | 88 |
| 2007 | Randy Moss, N.E. | 98 | 1,493 | 23 | 385.3 | 1 |
| 2012 | Stephen Hill, NYJ | 21 | 252 | 3 | 64.2 | 97 |
| 2015 | Jaelen Strong, Hou. | 14 | 161 | 3 | 48.1 | 111 |
| 2019 | Kenny Golladay, Det. | 65 | 1,190 | 11 | 250.0 | 9 |
| 2021 | Marquise Brown, Balt. | 91 | 1,008 | 6 | 228.3 | 21 |
| 2022 | Jahan Dotson, Was. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan