In just the eighth game of his fourth season in the National Football League, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson set the record for most receiving yards by a player in their first four NFL seasons. It was an achievement that properly captured the incredible and immediate impact that Jefferson has made in such a short time in Minnesota, and gave the Vikings good reason to hand Jefferson a four-year, $140 million contract extension that made Minnesota's All-Pro receiver the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL back in June.
The problem here is, Justin Jefferson's 2023 season was interrupted by a right hamstring injury that landed him on the IR for over a month, costing the league's reigning receiving yardage leader seven games in the middle of a year in which he was on pace for 1,826 yards, which would've been a career-high and the 6th-most yards by a wide receiver in a single season in NFL history. Nearly ten months after the initial injury, there are still lingering concerns within the Vikings organization and in Jefferson's own head, that it could happen again this year.
“I'm so scared for it to happen again that I've been overly cautious about it,” Jefferson said recently, according to Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. “Just trying to take care of my body in the right way, just trying to find new things that I can implement in my day-to-day life that can better help me throughout the season. I've definitely been working on my hamstrings a little bit more, making sure that I'm injury-proof.”
Injury-proof is a lofty and borderline unattainable expectation, but Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell shared that it's a been a concerted effort by both Jefferson and the staff in Minnesota to make sure their 140 million dollar man remains as healthy as possible throughout the 2024 season.
“We want to make sure his training camp progression is the right kind of progression coming off a first time for him having the type of injury he had,” Kevin O'Connell said. “It's more a matter of the dialogue that he has with [vice president of player health and performance Tyler Williams] and myself and making sure that our plan for him as we progress forward through the month of August has him, in his prime, optimal, physical football shape and ready to roll while also still tactically getting him prepared.”
How will Vikings quarterback situation impact Justin Jefferson?
If the final five games of the 2023 season taught us anything, it's that it doesn't really matter who is taking the snaps in Minnesota, Justin Jefferson is probably going to produce no matter what as long as he's healthy. With Nick Mullens filling in at quarterback with Kirk Cousins out for the season and Josh Dobbs benched, Jefferson still managed 503 yards in those five games. So whether Kevin O'Connell decides it's Sam Darnold, JJ McCarthy, or hell, even if 56-year-old Jeff George still believes that he's got the arm of a 25-year-old and wants to attempt a comeback with the Vikings, Jefferson is probably going to produce at a level on par with the best receivers in the NFL.
Right now, the mental hurdle that Jefferson needs to clear is a far bigger issue than who is throwing him the ball on Sundays.
“I'll get to the point where I feel like I'm not going to think of it again,” Jefferson said. “Just because I feel like I'm going to push it to where it's way strong enough for it not to happen again. It's all about having the confidence in it and I can go out there and play freely.”
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