Vikings true No. 2 receiver emerged in crazy win over Colts

Minnesota Vikings receiver K.J. Osborn had a coming-out party in his team’s incredible come-from-behind win over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday.

Heading into the start of the 2022 season, many had high hopes for Minnesota Vikings wide receiver K.J. Osborn in his third year with the team.

Coming off of a 2021 season where he caught 50 passes for 655 yards and seven touchdowns, some believed Osborn could emerge as a legitimate weapon in Minnesota’s offense this year under new head coach Kevin O’Connell.

However, before Saturday’s matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, the Vikings receiver had only hauled in 35 catches for 300 yards and three touchdowns this year. Osborn’s 2022 season was feeling like a bit of a letdown. But then Saturday happened, and the young receiver showed why the expectations for him were so high entering the 2022 campaign.

K.J. Osborn deserves to be Minnesota Vikings No. 2 receiver after performance vs. Indianapolis Colts

When the insanity that was Minnesota’s miraculous comeback win over the Colts came to a close on Saturday, Osborn wound up ending the contest with 10 catches for 157 yards and one touchdown on 16 targets.

For whatever reason, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins just kept finding Osborn all over the field on Saturday, and it ended up playing a big role in the team being able to erase a 33-point deficit.

Before the win over Indianapolis, Osborn had been targeted at least 10 times in a game during his career just once before, and that was earlier this season during Minnesota’s other miraculous victory in Week 10 over the Buffalo Bills.

Osborn made the most of his opportunities against Indianapolis and that’s what seemed to stand out more than anything else. But this is something that we’ve begun to see from the young Vikings pass-catcher during the last two seasons.

In fact, since 2021, Osborn has averaged 73.4 receiving yards in games where he was targeted at least six times. That’s higher than the 58.6 receiving yards that Adam Thielen has averaged in matchups since 2021 where he was targeted six times or more.

Osborn is clearly someone who Cousins trusts out on the field and Thielen appears to be turning into less and less of a factor each week.

The smart thing for Minnesota to do would be to make Osborn the team’s No. 2 receiver and move Thielen down to the third spot on the depth chart.

The third-year pass-catcher currently just makes more plays with the ball in his hands than the wise old vet and the Vikings would likely be better off finding more ways to get Osborn some extra targets each week.

Will this be something that Minnesota actually does during the rest of their season? Well, if they do, Osborn proved on Saturday that he’s fully capable of taking on a bigger workload if that’s what the Vikings need from him.