At LSU, Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry were teammates. In the NFL, they’ve done something no one else in NFL history has done.
Beckham and Landry completed their third regular seasons on Sunday, and they each have 288 career catches. That puts them in a tie for the most catches through a player’s first three seasons in NFL history.
Until Beckham and Landry this year, the player with the most catches in his first three seasons was Cincinnati’s A.J. Green, who had 260 catches from 2011 to 2013. Unsurprisingly, the Top 5 list of players with the most catches in their first three seasons is made up of recent wide receivers: Anquan Boldin is fourth, with 259 catches from 2003 to 2005, and DeAndre Hopkins is fifth, with 239 catches from 2013 to 2015.
Beckham and Landry’s record is probably safe for next year: Among second-year players, Amari Cooper has the most catches, with 155, and it seems unlikely that he’ll break the Beckham/Landry record with 134 catches next season. But Saints receiver Michael Thomas, who had 92 catches as a rookie this season, could be a threat to top 288 for his career in 2018. The way NFL receiving numbers are being broken, Beckham and Landry probably won’t own this record for long.