Justin Jefferson Injury Means Vikings Must Adapt – O’Connell

The Minnesota Vikings will have to find a new way to play without Justin Jefferson, says head coach Kevin O’Connell.

Justin Jefferson sustained a hamstring injury on Sunday and will miss at least four weeks as a result. It is the first time Justin Jefferson will miss games through injury. The Vikings have never had to plan without him before.

No wide receiver has more catches (164) or yards (2,380) in the NFL since 2022. So far this season, Jefferson is tied 6th in the league with 36 catches. He’s third in the league for yards (571) and fifth in receiving touchdowns (3).

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“The fact of the matter is we have to change the way we game-plan when we do have Justin available just because of the way the breakdowns work, and you think you’re going to get all these coverages that have shown up, and then we show up to the game and we get kind of a J.J. program consistently,” Kevin O’Connell said. 

“Something that we’ve had to really grow these last 25-plus games, whatever it’s been, and really dive into it from a standpoint of anticipating how he might be taken away and how that affects everybody else and where we require Jordan (Addison) or K.J. (Osborn) or T.J. Hockenson or Josh (Oliver) to go win in the pass game versus premier looks when so much coverage is dedicated to Justin.”

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“So now we gotta, knowing we might not have him for a stretch here, we’ve got to change the way we look at it and we’ve got to get back to making sure that we have sound plays versus the looks we think we’re going to get,” O’Connell said on Tuesday. 

“Give our guys, our playmakers, which we feel like we have plenty even losing the best receiver in football, we still are really excited about Jordan Addison. K.J. Osborn’s been ultra consistent, T.J. Hockenson, there’s a reason why he’s here, and we’ll continue to build things on all downs to keep him involved, and then how does C.J. Ham or Josh Oliver, Johnny Mundt or Brandon Powell, how do those guys fit in in their complementary roles, where they can really, really see some premier opportunities.”