EAGAN, Minn. — Justin Jefferson wasn’t the place he was imagined to be.
The Minnesota Vikings had been dealing with a 3rd down late of their Dec. 22 sport in Seattle, down by 4 factors at their 39-yard line. Jefferson had cut up out on the far left facet of the group’s formation, ready to run a route that will take him towards the center of the sector, an space he feasted on throughout his fifth NFL season.
After which the Jefferson magic occurred, the sort of adjustment solely one of the best receivers can pull off.
Jefferson obtained such a very good break off the road towards cornerback Riq Woolen that security Julian Love, positioned to assist Woolen cowl him, reacted by turning his hips inside, which left the deep a part of the sideline open. Jefferson subtly modified instructions and rotated to see if quarterback Sam Darnold had adopted the adjustment.
Darnold certainly noticed it develop and fired a move towards the objective line. Jefferson whipped towards the sideline, pulled within the ball and scored the profitable landing within the Vikings’ 27-24 victory.
“Probably not a secret to it or a system to it,” Jefferson mentioned afterward, shrugging his shoulders. “It is all about going on the market, making performs and executing.”
.@JJettas2 CLUTCH.#ProBowlVote
📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/HFiWQZibHR
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 22, 2024
There was much more to it, after all, from Darnold’s consciousness to educate Kevin O’Connell’s playcalling and scheme. However that second, which O’Connell mentioned on the time might need been the Vikings’ most essential play of the season, was key as Minnesota works to reply an important team-building query: Can a receiver lead a group to a Tremendous Bowl?
There are a number of examples of a working again carrying a group via the common season and the playoffs. Look no additional than how Saquon Barkley elevated the Philadelphia Eagles in 2024 on their method to profitable Tremendous Bowl LIX. However there is not a lot precedent for move catchers. Of the 28 instances a Corridor of Fame vast receiver gained a Tremendous Bowl, solely three of them occurred and not using a Corridor of Fame quarterback, most not too long ago Washington’s Art Monk in 1991.
However the Vikings believed Jefferson was distinctive after they made him the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback in 2024 with a four-year, $140 million contract extension. He responded with a unanimous All-Professional season, catching 103 passes for 1,533 yards and 10 touchdowns, a feat that coincided with a quarterback transition from Kirk Cousins to Darnold and J.J. McCarthy, a pair of decrease paid and fewer achieved passers on whose efficiency Jefferson’s success would appear to rely.
However what if the roles are reversed in Minnesota? What if this receiver is so quarterback-friendly he might elevate the mess around him to a championship degree?
“On the finish of the day,” normal supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah mentioned final summer time, “if you research groups which have gotten to the NFC or AFC Championship Sport, or the Tremendous Bowl degree, there’s simply a certain quantity of expertise that it requires. The way you get to the reply could be a whole lot of various things.”
IN FIVE NFL seasons, primarily with Darnold and Cousins as his quarterbacks, Jefferson has made two playoff appearances. The Vikings are 0-2 in these video games. However Jefferson, 25, has been so persistently productive throughout that point that few notice the gravity of his early-career accomplishments: He’s the one participant in NFL historical past to have a couple of 1,500-yard season earlier than the age of 26. He has three.
As wild as it would sound, the 2024 marketing campaign was a slog at instances, as Jefferson spent coaching camp familiarizing himself with Darnold and McCarthy, who probably would have gotten on the sector in some unspecified time in the future had he not suffered a meniscus harm in his proper knee that sidelined him for the season. The Vikings tried the second-fewest passes in a season throughout Jefferson’s profession (548, 18th the NFL), and he went and not using a landing reception in additional consecutive video games (six) than ever earlier than.
There have been a number of video games by which Darnold didn’t goal Jefferson till the second quarter, and there was one — Week 10 in Jacksonville — when he threw three interceptions whereas attempting to power the ball Jefferson’s method. However Jefferson achieved his first objective for 2024, enjoying in all 17 video games whereas collaborating in a career-high 93.5% of the offense’s snaps after a proper hamstring tear value him seven video games in 2023.
“That was undoubtedly one thing that I wished to do coming off of final yr,” Jefferson mentioned. “One, was being wholesome all through the entire whole yr. And two, was simply bouncing again from that earlier yr. … ‘What might have been’ was at all times going via my thoughts after [2023], however I wished to come back again and have one other nice season and win video games.”
Jefferson’s full season coincided with a profession yr from Darnold, who threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns whereas elevating from the underside of the NFL’s QBR rankings in his earlier 5 campaigns to No. 14 in 2024. O’Connell’s scheme and playcalling get a good portion of the credit score, along with Darnold’s personal growth. Nevertheless it’s tough to disregard the position Jefferson performed, on the passes he caught and the way his presence created alternatives for others.
Darnold’s greatest section of the season — he threw 18 touchdowns and two interceptions between Weeks 11 and 17 — got here after receiver Jordan Addison (ankle) and tight finish T.J. Hockenson (knee) returned to full well being. Throughout that interval, Darnold focused Addison practically as many instances (65) as Jefferson (75). Hockenson, in the meantime, ranked third on the group in targets (48) after Week 10.
The Vikings should determine whether or not meaning Jefferson can’t elevate their offense on his personal or they want their greatest supplementary gamers in place to benefit from his presence.
“On the finish of the day,” Adofo-Mensah mentioned, “you need to pay premier gamers who can produce whereas making different folks’s jobs simpler. That may come a whole lot of alternative ways, at a whole lot of completely different positions.”
A delicate instance of constructing life simpler for his teammates got here in Week 17 towards the Inexperienced Bay Packers. On a first-down play within the third quarter, Jefferson aligned on the far facet of the formation subsequent to Addison, who was within the slot. On the snap, Jefferson ran towards the center of the sector, carrying two Packers defenders with him. Addison then executed a double transfer that O’Connell had inserted into the playbook to benefit from defenders who could be targeted on Jefferson.
Addison scored on an 18-yard move play.
This route by Addison 😮
📺: #GBvsMIN on FOX
📱: pic.twitter.com/PrVvR4Wj4h— NFL (@NFL) December 29, 2024
THERE ARE 14 vast receivers enshrined within the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame who additionally gained a minimum of one Tremendous Bowl. Two did so and not using a Corridor of Fame quarterback. Cliff Department did it twice with Jim Plunkett, whereas Monk achieved it with Mark Rypien and Doug Williams.
The Vikings have excessive hopes for McCarthy, the No. 10 decide of the 2023 draft, and Darnold’s season at age 27 has pumped new life into his profession. However historical past’s clear pattern drives a steep impediment into the hope that Jefferson — or any receiver — can elevate his group to a championship degree.
In discussing that problem, Vikings receivers coach Keenan McCardell has referenced a nickname a earlier Vikings assistant utilized to Jefferson: “Waffle Home 18.” One of the simplest ways to lift a quarterback’s efficiency degree is to be — like Waffle Home — “open on a regular basis,” McCardell mentioned.
“As soon as a quarterback has been with him in follow for some time,” McCardell added, “it will be simple for him to say, ‘Oh, OK. I can see how a lot separation he wants, or does not want, to get for me to think about him open.’ It makes for a neater throw.”
By definition, nevertheless, a receiver’s skill to make performs or create them for others is tied to the quarterback’s aptitude. It is usually vulnerable to excessive defensive approaches, be it unique coverages or bodily manhandling that challenges officers who attempt to stability throwing flags with sustaining the circulation of a sport.
Jefferson, for instance, grew deeply annoyed with the Detroit Lions’ protection in Week 18, which, mixed with a shaky sport from Darnold, left him with three catches for 54 yards in a 31-9 loss.
“Across the league, guys who play a whole lot of man [coverage] like that, they educate them to seize,” Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips mentioned. “The nice ones are fairly artful about it, after which after they do get the decision, all of them throw their palms up and say, ‘What? No method.’ I believe it is simply sort of human nature, too. The refs do not need to be throwing flags each play. And so you are not going to get all these calls, and also you simply should be mature sufficient to work via and preserve enjoying soccer.
“I do not suppose he lets it get to him an excessive amount of. Justin is an final competitor. There’s going to be frustration from a man, like his caliber of participant, if he isn’t getting the soccer and affecting the sport in a method he is aware of he can. I believe that is completely pure and anticipated from our finish.”
Extra important is the truth that Jefferson is headed towards enjoying with a minimum of his fifth — and probably sixth — completely different quarterback for the reason that begin of the 2023 season. He caught passes from Cousins, Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall and Darnold in 27 video games throughout that interval, and the Vikings’ 2025 starter stays undetermined.
The Vikings might convey again Darnold, flip the keys over to McCarthy or signal a unique veteran to play till McCarthy is prepared. Jefferson, nevertheless, has repeatedly declined to weigh in on the QB carousel regardless of the dearth of continuity.
“It does not actually matter to me,” he mentioned the day after the Vikings’ wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. “It is probably not one thing that I am making a giant deal about. Whoever they determine to both convey again or to have on this locker room, we have to make it work, and we have to do no matter it takes to get a Tremendous Bowl.”
If Jefferson can get it performed, and if he can lead the Vikings to a championship and not using a quarterback who goes down as an all-time nice, he could have achieved the rarest of feats.
Thankfully for the Vikings, he has the correct mindset.
In January, Jefferson sat down for an interview with Corridor of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner. The primary query: “What makes Justin Jefferson one in all one?”
Jefferson smiled for a second. His preliminary response was telling.
“I imply, what does not make Justin Jefferson one in all one?”