At a time when the Madden cover athlete’s primary objective should be to avoid the curse of the Madden cover, Lions receiver Calvin Johnson is aiming slightly higher after a season that included 96 catches, 1,681 yards, and 16 touchdowns.
“I expect myself to do better in every category than I did the year before,” Johnson said in the ESPN The Magazine season preview issue, via Josh Slagter of MLive.com. “My goal is to have 100 yards for my team every game. If I can just keep that average up, I feel like I’m helping my team. Who knows, sky’s the limit.”
While Johnson averaged more than 100 yards per game in 2011, he had only eight 100-yard games.
“I want the defense to fear me,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of cool I’ve got the nickname Megatron because he is the bad guy. I like to be the bad guy to the defense.”
If he can get at least 100 yards every game, he can be a bad guy to the record book. The single-season receiving yardage is 1,848, set by Jerry Rice in 1995. That’s an average of 115.5 yards per game.
That’s something Megatron could possibly accomplish.