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Vikings Legend · Wide Receiver · No. 80
The surest hands of his generation, and the receiver whose second chance in Minnesota turned into twelve seasons and a gold jacket.
Philadelphia cut him loose in the 1990 preseason. Minnesota claimed him off waivers on September 4, 1990, and over the next twelve years Carter caught more passes, for more yards and more touchdowns, than any player in Vikings history. He retired second in NFL history in both receptions and receiving touchdowns, and the Vikings retired his No. 80.
Sixteen NFL seasons, twelve of them in purple, and a body of work that took six years of Hall of Fame balloting to be fully understood.
Carter was not the fastest receiver of the 1990s and never pretended to be. He won with hands, route detail and an almost unfair sense of where the sideline was, turning throws that should have been incompletions into first downs.
NFL Network's NFL's Top 10 series later ranked him first among receivers with the best hands in league history.
The most consequential waiver claim in Vikings history began as a salvage job.
Carter arrived in the NFL by an unusual route. Ruled ineligible for his senior season at Ohio State after secretly signing with an agent, he entered the 1987 NFL supplemental draft and was taken in the fourth round by the Philadelphia Eagles. He had left Columbus as the school's all-time leader in receptions, with 168 catches for 2,725 yards and 27 touchdowns, and as a consensus All-American in 1986.
The early production was real but narrow. He caught five passes as a rookie, the first of them a 22-yard touchdown. By 1989 he was Philadelphia's primary red-zone target, leading the team with 11 touchdown catches on 45 receptions for 605 yards. Then, at the end of the 1990 preseason, head coach Buddy Ryan cut him. Carter has since said publicly that the release followed his own alcohol and drug abuse, and he has credited Ryan with forcing the reckoning that saved his career and his life.
Minnesota · From September 4, 1990The Vikings claimed him off waivers on September 4, 1990, for a $100 waiver fee. He was a role player at first, stuck behind Hassan Jones and Anthony Carter, and finished that first Minnesota season with 27 receptions for 413 yards and three touchdowns. He did get one pointed evening out of it: six catches for 151 yards, including a 78-yard touchdown, on a Monday night back in Philadelphia on October 15, 1990.
What changed after that was the work. Quarterback Rich Gannon, recalling Carter's practice habits for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, described a receiver who would simply take over the JUGS machine and sit there catching balls. By 1991 Carter led Minnesota with 72 receptions. By 1993, with Jim McMahon throwing, he posted 86 catches for 1,071 yards and nine touchdowns and made the first of eight straight Pro Bowls.
In 1994 and 1995 Carter caught 122 passes in back-to-back years, a volume no receiver had reached twice before.
Minnesota signed Warren Moon before the 1994 season, and the pairing was immediate. Carter caught 122 passes that year for 1,256 yards and seven touchdowns, setting the NFL single-season reception record and earning first-team All-Pro honors. The record lasted exactly one season: Detroit's Herman Moore broke it in 1995 with 123.
Carter simply did it again. His 1995 season was the best statistical year of his career, with another 122 receptions, a career-high 1,371 yards and a league-leading 17 touchdown catches, work that brought second-team All-Pro recognition. The two-year total of 244 catches was an NFL record at the time, and he remains one of only a handful of players to post two separate 120-catch seasons.
The volume was not a fluke of one system or one quarterback. Brad Johnson took over midway through 1996 and Carter caught 96 passes for 1,163 yards and 10 scores. In 1997 he led the NFL with 13 touchdown receptions while pacing Minnesota with 89 catches for 1,069 yards. Between 1993 and 2000 he ran off eight consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and eight consecutive Pro Bowls, playing for four different primary quarterbacks along the way.
“He would get the JUGS machine, and he would just sit there (catching balls).”Rich Gannon on Carter's practice habits, quoted by the Pro Football Hall of Fame
| Season | Receptions | Yards | TDs | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 86 | 1,071 | 9 | First Pro Bowl |
| 1994 | 122 | 1,256 | 7 | NFL reception record; 1st-team All-Pro |
| 1995 | 122 | 1,371 | 17 | Led NFL in receiving TDs |
| 1996 | 96 | 1,163 | 10 | Fourth straight Pro Bowl |
| 1997 | 89 | 1,069 | 13 | Led NFL in receiving TDs |
| 1998 | 78 | 1,011 | 12 | Vikings go 15–1 |
| 1999 | 90 | 1,241 | 13 | Led NFL in receiving TDs; 1st-team All-Pro |
| 2000 | 96 | 1,274 | 9 | Eighth straight Pro Bowl |
Minnesota scored 556 points in 1998, then a league record, and finished 15–1. The season ended one game short of the Super Bowl.
When the Vikings drafted Marshall receiver Randy Moss 21st overall in 1998, the assumption outside Minnesota was that a rookie would have to wait his turn behind a 32-year-old established star. That is not how it worked. Defenses that rolled a safety over the top to handle Moss left Carter in single coverage underneath, and defenses that tried to bracket Carter gave a rookie the entire deep third of the field. There was no correct answer.
Carter caught 78 passes for 1,011 yards and 12 touchdowns that season and made another Pro Bowl. Moss caught 69 for 1,313 yards and 17 touchdowns, still the NFL rookie record for receiving scores. With Randall Cunningham at quarterback the Vikings went 15–1, losing only a three-point game at Tampa Bay, and scored 556 points, an NFL record at the time.
The postseason started as expected: a 41–21 win over Arizona in the divisional round, and the franchise's first NFC Championship Game appearance since the 1987 season. Then it stopped. Minnesota, favored by more than 13 points at home, lost 30–27 in overtime to the Atlanta Falcons after kicker Gary Anderson missed his first field goal of the entire season. The Vikings did not reach the Super Bowl that year, and Carter later said that loss was the one regret of his Minnesota career.
After setting the NFL single-season reception record with 122 catches in 1994, Carter matched the number in 1995 and added a career-high 1,371 yards and a league-leading 17 touchdowns. The 244 receptions across the two years were an NFL record at the time.
1994–1995 seasonsOn the 15–1 team that scored a then-record 556 points, Carter still cleared 1,000 yards and scored 12 times while Moss set the rookie touchdown record. Two receivers, one ball, and no workable way to defend both.
1998 seasonOn November 30, 2000, Carter caught a four-yard touchdown pass against Detroit to become only the second player in NFL history, after Jerry Rice, to reach 1,000 career receptions.
November 30, 2000 · vs Detroit LionsMinnesota-only production alongside his full 16-season NFL career totals.
At the time he retired, Carter's 1,101 receptions and 130 receiving touchdowns each ranked second in NFL history behind Jerry Rice; both marks have since been passed by other players. He left Minnesota holding the franchise records for receptions (1,004), receiving yards (12,383), receiving touchdowns (110), games played by a wide receiver (188) and 100-yard receiving games (40). His three NFL seasons in Philadelphia (1987–1989) and one in Miami (2002) account for the difference between his Vikings and career totals.
1984–1986
Left Columbus as the school's all-time leader in receptions with 168 catches for 2,725 yards and 27 touchdowns, and a consensus All-American in 1986. He was ruled ineligible for his senior season after signing with an agent.
1987
Selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth round of the 1987 NFL supplemental draft. His first professional catch was a 22-yard touchdown.
1990
Released by Philadelphia at the end of the 1990 preseason and claimed off waivers by the Vikings on September 4, 1990 for a $100 fee.
1993–2000
Eight consecutive Pro Bowl selections and eight consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, including the back-to-back 122-catch years of 1994 and 1995.
2001–2002
His twelfth and last Vikings season came in 2001. After a year away from the field he signed with the Miami Dolphins in October 2002 and retired after that season.
2003
Inducted into the Vikings Ring of Honor on September 14, 2003. His No. 80 is one of six jersey numbers the franchise has retired.
2013
Elected on February 2, 2013 and enshrined in Canton on August 3, 2013, alongside Bill Parcells, Larry Allen, Jonathan Ogden, Warren Sapp, Curley Culp and Dave Robinson.
The catches are what people replay: the toe-drags in the back corner, the ball secured a foot outside the boundary with both feet somehow inside it. That skill was visible long before Minnesota. His college quarterback at Ohio State, Jim Karsatos, described a sideline catch Carter made in the 1985 Citrus Bowl on a ball Karsatos had been trying to throw away, and said that on film it looked as though Carter levitated back in bounds to get his feet down.
The reputation that grew around him in Minnesota was about more than catching. Randall Cunningham, recalling him for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, described a teammate who was going to say something about everything, up to and including telling defensive players how to cover better. The honors bear the same shape: the Bart Starr Award in 1995 and the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award in 1999, which recognizes community work as much as playing.
Canton was not quick about it. Carter was a finalist five times across six years of eligibility, repeatedly passed over as receivers such as Jerry Rice, Tim Brown and Andre Reed crowded the ballot, before he was finally elected on February 2, 2013. He was enshrined that August, presented by his son Duron.
Minnesota had settled the question a decade earlier. Carter went into the Vikings Ring of Honor on September 14, 2003, and the team retired his No. 80, one of only six numbers the franchise has taken out of circulation. He left holding essentially every meaningful receiving record in club history, and he is still the leader in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns as a Viking.
Records Carter held when he left Minnesota after the 2001 season:
1,004 receptions · 12,383 receiving yards · 110 receiving touchdowns · 188 games played by a wide receiver · 40 100-yard receiving games.
Career and franchise statistics, honors and dates on this page are drawn from the Pro Football Hall of Fame player record, the Minnesota Vikings' own Vikings Legends profile, and the Wikipedia career-statistics record. Anything we could not confirm against those sources has been left off this page rather than estimated. This is an independent fan site with no affiliation to the Minnesota Vikings or the NFL.
From a $100 waiver claim in September 1990 to a retired No. 80 and a gold jacket in Canton, Cris Carter's twelve seasons in purple remain the most productive receiving career the franchise has ever had.
More Vikings history