Justin Jefferson puts offense on his shoulders

The star wide receiver pointed out details he missed -- and won't miss again

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — If Justin Jefferson wanted to avoid questions about the first half of the game against the Chicago Bears and focus on the Minnesota Vikings’ impressive fourth-quarter comeback, he would have been well within his rights. After all, he and quarterback JJ McCarthy connected on a huge chunk play and then an impressive touchdown that sparked the young QB’s outstanding final quarter of the game.

Instead, Jefferson wanted to make sure that he took responsibility for some of the early struggles and for McCarthy’s biggest miscue of the game.

“I'm always a critic of myself and always look for things that I can improve on and do better looking at the film and seeing the different plays that were out there, just making better details, even on the interception, just detailing my route and just understanding where I need to get to in that route and understanding to [create] a better throw for JJ,” Jefferson said.

The superstar wide receiver went onto explain that on McCarthy’s pick-six, he needed another two steps before going into his break.

“That's why the ball was thrown inside of me rather than where it needed to be…I'm just happy that JJ really didn't think about it too much,” Jefferson said. “JJ was on to the next play…So it's really kudos to him to put that play behind him and really move forward. But that's definitely something that I take initiative with and take very personally.”

Jefferson also had two surprising drops — catches we have seen him make many, many times in the past. His 58.3 PFF grade was only the second below 60 since Week 17 of the 2022 season when he wore the wrong cleats.

The superstar wide receiver insisted that missing training camp with a hamstring injury did not impact his Week 1 performance.

“I feel like it’s all just mentally, I just got to slow my brain down, understand where I need to be at, the timing of routes, and understanding that especially on that play on third down, they send the house and pretty much man-to-man all across the board,” Jefferson said. “I have to be better on detailing my routing and getting to where I need to be.”

He will need to be in the right places to match up with an Atlanta Falcons defense that held Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield to 167 yards and top receiver Mike Evans to five receptions from 51 yards. Last year versus the Falcons, Jefferson had his highest PFF grade of the year and his highest yardage total (144).

“It's gonna be tough, just like I always and I always say, tell it to JJ, they can have a whole different game plan for that team and then play us and be totally different,” Jefferson said. “Tampa had a lot of explosive plays and was able to move the ball pretty well so that's definitely something great to look at but also we're gonna get a total different look. We have a total different team, a total different offense, different type of quarterback, different type of receivers.”

The takeaway from Jefferson’s comments is: Over the last two years, he has said that he wanted to take more of a leadership role and

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