Justin Jefferson on Slow Start Amid Vikings' 6-0 Run: 'What We're Doing Right Now Is Working'
Minnesota's star receiver is having the quietest start of his career, but he says he isn't asking for more targets on the league's only unbeaten team
Justin Jefferson is putting up the worst numbers of his career, and he says he's fine with it as long as the Vikings keep winning.
Jefferson told reporters Wednesday that it's "definitely an in-between feeling" to see his production drop while Minnesota sits at 6-0, the only undefeated team in the league, ESPN's Kevin Seifert reported.
"I definitely would love winning games over having that production. There was definitely years before where I had that production and was not winning games. So it's definitely an in-between feeling on, you want to be the best player in the league, and you want to have that production to show you are the best player in the league, but we're winning games and we're the only team undefeated in the league."
"What we're doing right now [as a team] is working. Obviously there's things to do better and things to fix on the offensive side of things, but all in all, it's coming together and we're doing things to win games."
— Justin Jefferson
The numbers back up how unusual this is. Jefferson is averaging 60.4 receiving yards per game, 32% below his previous worst start, and his 23 catches are his fewest through seven weeks of any season. Seventy-one players have more targets than his 31. A sprained left ankle cost him one full game and most of another, and he said he isn't "going to the higher-ups and asking for the ball."
The bigger reason is how Minnesota is playing. With new quarterback Kyler Murray still settling in, Kevin O'Connell has leaned on a top defense and the run game. The Vikings have the league's fourth-highest rate of designed runs and its second-fewest dropbacks.
"He's our best player," O'Connell said. "We've got to find a way to continue to activate him."
That gets harder now. Minnesota opens the toughest stretch of its schedule Sunday at Detroit, followed by the Bills, Packers and 49ers.