Before Sunday, no one had ever seen an NFL running back spin away from one tackler, then execute a reverse leapfrog of another.
The Eagles’ Saquon Barkley did that, instantly morphing into a combination of Spider-Man, Iron Man and Simone Biles.
As recently as 10 or 20 years ago, the one-handed catch, like Jordan Addison’s on Sunday night against the Colts, was a unicorn.
In 2024, we have a herd of unicorns — which is, fittingly, called a blessing.
When the Vikings play at Jacksonville on Sunday, don’t be surprised if Justin Jefferson catches the ball between two fingers of his right hand while his left hand plays air-guitar arpeggios, or if someone kicks a 70-yard field goal while executing a somersault.
Former Vikings coach Denny Green once spoke of receiver Cris Carter expanding the parameters of the field with his ability to catch passes thrown four feet out of bounds while keeping his toes inbounds. The modern NFL player viewed receivers like Carter and Randy Moss as pioneers, not pinnacles.
“I was just saying in here that the level of receiving talent, just purely from body awareness and catching ability, is at such a high level,” Vikings safety Harrison Smith said in the locker room this week. “There are multiple catches every week that I feel like — and I could be wrong — you would have seen maybe once a week, or here or there, in the past. Now it’s every game.
“Last week it was Jordan. Jets [Justin Jefferson] is always making catches like that.”
