13 October 2023
Justin Jefferson can’t remember the first time he faced triple coverage. It has become more prevalent in his football life over the past couple of seasons as he has established himself as the NFL’s best receiver. It’s almost as if the league as a whole simultaneously came to the same realization that double coverage isn’t enough.
There was a perfect example of that earlier this season in a primetime game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
On that particular play in the red zone, Jefferson lined up at the top of the formation, with fellow receiver K.J. Osborn on the opposite side of the field. As soon as Kirk Cousins took the snap, Jefferson attracted the attention of every single player in the secondary while running a crossing route, which left Osborn wide open in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.
“There’s no more that I can do,” Jefferson said with a laugh a few weeks ago. “Just create the attention and draw everybody toward me.”
The magnetism of Jefferson can be felt each time he steps onto the field. Now it’s gone, at least for the next month with the 24-year-old star on injured reserve as he works through a hamstring strain he suffered in last Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
How will the Vikings move forward without him? That’s the million-dollar question heading into a must-win game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field. That will be the first time Jefferson has missed a game since the Vikings selected him in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
“You haven’t really seen what that might look like,” Cousins said when asked how Jefferson’s absence changes the game plan. “We still have our system. We’ve still got to run our system. That probably doesn’t change.”
The issue with that is Jefferson is the system in a lot of ways. The production speaks for itself. He has been the straw that stirs the drink for the offense for years, and he has 36 catches for 571 yards so far this season while being targeted roughly 26 percent of the time the Vikings have dropped back to pass.
The playbook itself functions largely because of how defenses make it their mission to take Jefferson away over the course of a game. On passing plays, he regularly has to deal with double coverage, and sometimes triple coverage, regardless of if he’s actually getting the ball. On running plays, he can open up space simply by lining up wide and taking multiple defenders with him.
The loss of Jefferson has forced head coach Kevin O’Connell to reconsider how the Vikings are going to be defended in the coming weeks. He knows they need to figure out a way to be effective despite the fact that a large chunk of the offense has been built around Jefferson and the attention he garners on a weekly basis.
“There’s no real excuse to say on Monday morning, ‘Aww shucks. It was different,’ ” O’Connell said. “We’ve got to plan accordingly, and that’s where I feel comfortable with our system doing that.”
The most common tactic opposing teams have deployed to stop Jefferson has featured a cornerback pressed up at the line of scrimmage with a safety helping over the top. As much as that has limited Jefferson’s explosiveness, at times, it has helped open the door for big plays elsewhere.
That phenomenon is something rookie receiver Jordan Addison experienced firsthand on the first touchdown of his career. After making a subtle move on a post route, Addison found himself wide open downfield because a pair of defenders converged on Jefferson.
“It’ll be a lot different without him,” Addison said. “Just the attention that he takes up being out there.”
The gravity of Jefferson was noticeable for T.J. Hockenson as soon as the Vikings acquired him from the Detroit Lions last season. As a tight end who spent a large chunk of his career to that point as the focal point of the offense, Hockenson welcomed the favorable matchups Jefferson created for him.
“You get linebackers rather than safeties coming down or the best corner coming in,” Hockenson said. “There’s going to be an effect to not having him out there.”
Though the Vikings won’t change their offense, they will have to change the way they function in it. That might mean a bigger emphasis on the running game, with Alexander Mattison and Cam Akers leading the way. That might mean Osborn and Addison being relied upon to create separation. That might mean more intermediate routes to Hockenson to activate his unique skill set.
“The explosive plays from Justin, we’ll certainly miss,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “We hope some guys can pick up some of that slack.”
The success of the Vikings in the short term will depend on that.
“It’s next man up,” Hockenson said. “We have opportunities for all the guys in this locker room to step up and make plays when their number is called.”
As for Jefferson, he will now try to make an impact from the sidelines, serving as the team’s biggest cheerleader until he can get back on the field.
“His mood is high,” Hockenson said. “That’s a credit to him. He’s a captain and a guy that has the same mood every day coming in. That’s what we look for in those kinds of people. He’ll be alright. He’s still going to be the same Justin when he comes back.”
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