Last week, Hunter Renfrow moved his way into some elite company with the Raiders. He became one of just three wide receivers in Raiders history to have 90 catches in a season, joining Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Tim Brown.
By the end of that Raiders’ win over the Broncos, he had 92 catches on the season which tied Jerry Rice for the second-most catches by a Raiders’ wide receiver and the fourth most overall with Rice and Todd Christensen.
The next step was to move into sole possession of that spot in the record books, and he did that on the second play of the game with a 14-yard catch.
Next up was Todd Christensen’s mark of 95 catches in a season for third in franchise history. Renfrow tied that mark on the sixth play of the game with his third catch on the Raiders’ opening drive.
Renfrow would surpass it to take sole possession of third in the second quarter with a 12-yard catch.
Meanwhile, Renfrow was moving closer to another milestone. He needed 51 yards to hit 1000 yards on the season. An 11-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter not only gave him 1001 yards on the season but gave the Raiders the lead at 20-17.
It’s a mark the unassuming Renfrow never thought possible for him.
“That’s incredible,” Renfrow said of surpassing 1000 yards on the season. “I’ve never really gauged my success off of yards or catches or anything like that, but I’m not gonna lie to you that did seem like something out of the realm of possibility. Coming in as a rookie and I never had 600 yards in college.”
Renfrow did actually have 600 yards in college. He hit 602 yards his junior year at Clemson. But that was his high watermark. He only got to 544 yards as a senior.
It seems like not so long ago we were talking about Renfrow putting up 100 yards receiving in a game for the first time in his entire football life even dating back to high school. Crazy.
By the end of this game, Renfrow had seven catches for 76 yards, giving him 99 catches for 1025 yards on the season.
He becomes the first Raiders wide receiver to hit 1000 yards since Amari Cooper in 2016 and the third most by a Raiders wide receiver since 2002. And joins a shortlist of Raiders drafted receivers in the process.
#Raiders draft picks with 1000-yard receiving seasons for team since merger:
Hunter Renfrow 2021
Tim Brown 9 times
Amari Cooper twice
Cliff Branch twice
Mervyn Fernandez— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) January 2, 2022
Where does Renfrow go from here? Well, he needs six receptions to overtake Tim Brown for second-most receptions in a season and the most by a wide receiver. Tight end Darren Waller had surpassed Brown’s franchise record 104 receptions last season. He put up 107 yards. Renfrow would need nine catches to tie Waller and ten to surpass him.
He needs 46 yards to surpass Cooper’s mark (1070) from 2015 and give him the second-most yards by a wide receiver since 2002. And 129 yards to surpass Coop’s 2016 mark (1153).
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