Justin Jefferson

Justin Joshua Jefferson (born June 16, 1999)[1] is an American football wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the LSU Tigers, where he won the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship as a junior before being drafted by the Vikings in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

Justin Jefferson
refer to caption
Jefferson in 2022
No. 18 – Minnesota Vikings
Position:Wide receiver
Personal information
Born: (1999-06-16) June 16, 1999
St. Rose, Louisiana, U.S.
Height:6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight:195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
High school:Destrehan (Destrehan, Louisiana)
College:LSU (2017–2019)
NFL Draft:2020 / Round: 1 / Pick: 22
Career history
Roster status:Injured reserve
Career highlights and awards
NFL record
  • Most receiving yards per game (career): 98.1
Career NFL statistics as of Week 5, 2023
Receptions:360
Receiving yards:5,396
Receiving touchdowns:28
Player stats at NFL.com · PFR

Since joining the league, Jefferson has been named to the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro team in each of his first three seasons. In 2022, at 23 years old, he became the youngest player to lead the league in receptions (128) and receiving yards (1,809), earning Offensive Player of the Year honors and amassing the most receiving yards through a player's first three seasons.

Early years

Jefferson attended Destrehan High School in Destrehan, Louisiana.[2] A low three-star prospect, ranked by 247Sports as the nation's 308th best wide receiver coming out of high school, he committed to Louisiana State University (LSU) to play college football.[3][4]

College career
Jefferson with LSU in 2019

Jefferson played at LSU for three years under head coach Ed Orgeron.[5]

2017–2018

After appearing in two games and not recording a catch his first year at LSU in 2017, Jefferson was their leading receiver in 2018 with 54 catches for 875 yards and six touchdowns.[6][7][8] He scored his first collegiate touchdown on a 65-yard reception from Joe Burrow against Ole Miss on September 29, 2018.[9] He had two games going over the 100-yard mark with 108 in a victory over Georgia and 117 in a victory over Arkansas.[10][11]

2019

In the Tigers' second game of the 2019 season, Jefferson had nine receptions for 163 yards and three touchdowns in a 45–38 victory on the road against Texas.[12] On October 12, against Florida, he had ten receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown in the 42–28 victory.[13] In the SEC Championship, against Georgia, he had seven receptions for 115 yards and a touchdown in the 37–10 victory.[14] Jefferson and the Tigers qualified for the College Football Playoffs with an undefeated record in the 2019 season.[15] He had a historic performance in the Peach Bowl, catching 14 passes for 227 yards and four touchdowns against the Oklahoma Sooners in the College Football Playoff Semifinals. All four touchdowns came in the first half, and set a College Football Playoff game record and tied the record for any bowl game.[16] In the National Championship against Clemson, he had nine receptions for 106 yards in the 42–25 victory.[17] In his junior season, Jefferson led the country with 111 receptions. His 18 receiving touchdowns ranked second in the country—behind only teammate Ja'Marr Chase—and his 1,540 receiving yards were third most. He had eight games going over the 100-yard mark.[18][19] On January 15, 2020, Jefferson announced that he would forgo his senior season and enter the NFL Draft.[20]

Statistics
Justin Jefferson
Season Receiving Rushing
RecYdsAvgLngTDAttYdsAvgLngTD
2017 000.000144.040
2018 5487516.26565265.2190
2019 1111,54013.97118000.000
Career1652,41514.671246305.0190

Professional career
Pre-draft measurables
HeightWeightArm lengthHand span40-yard dash10-yard split20-yard splitVertical jumpBroad jumpWonderlic
6 ft 1+1⁄4 in
(1.86 m)		 202 lb
(92 kg)		 33 in
(0.84 m)		 9+1⁄8 in
(0.23 m)		4.43 s1.57 s2.61 s37.5 in
(0.95 m)		10 ft 6 in
(3.20 m)		19
All values from NFL Combine[21][22][23]

Jefferson was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round with the 22nd overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.[24] The Vikings previously obtained the 22nd selection as part of a blockbuster trade that sent wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Buffalo Bills.[25] Jefferson signed a four-year, $13.12 million contract with the team, with a $7.1 million signing bonus.[26] Jefferson was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list by the team on July 27, 2020,[27] before being cleared and activated a week later.[28]

2020
See also: 2020 Minnesota Vikings season

Jefferson made his debut in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers, recording two receptions for 26 yards.[29] He made his first start of the season in a Week 3 game against the Tennessee Titans, where he had his first big breakthrough by finishing with 175 receiving yards and a touchdown on seven receptions, but the Vikings lost 30–31.[30] He followed up that performance the next week with four receptions for 103 yards in a 31–23 win over the Houston Texans. In doing so, he became just the fifth rookie wide receiver in Vikings history to have back-to-back games with at least 100 yards receiving.[31] During Week 6 against the Atlanta Falcons, Jefferson finished with nine receptions for 166 receiving yards and two touchdowns .[32]

In Week 13 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jefferson recorded nine catches for 121 yards and a touchdown during a 27–24 overtime win, in this game he broke the 1,000 receiving yard mark.[33] In Week 15 against the Chicago Bears, Jefferson broke Randy Moss's Vikings rookie receiving record by catching eight passes, putting him at 74 receptions, surpassing the 69 catches Moss had in 1998.[34]

By the season's end, Jefferson had set the NFL record for most receiving yards (1,400) by a rookie in NFL history after surpassing Anquan Boldin's 1,377 yards in 2003 (although his record would be broken by his former LSU teammate Ja'Marr Chase the following season).[35] He was one of only two rookies named to the 2021 Pro Bowl, alongside defensive end Chase Young of the Washington Football Team.[36] He was named Rookie of the Year by the Sporting News.[37] He was named to the NFL All-Rookie Team.[38] He was ranked 53rd by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2021.[39]

2021
See also: 2021 Minnesota Vikings season

Jefferson's season started strong, putting up over 100 receiving yards against Seattle, Detroit, and the Chargers over the first eight games of the season. In Week 11, Jefferson had eight catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns in a 34–31 win over the Green Bay Packers, earning NFC Offensive Player of the Week.[40] In Week 13, Jefferson caught 11 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown in a 29–27 loss to the Detroit Lions. Jefferson's 464 yards and three touchdowns through four games in the month of November earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Month, the first of his career.[41] During Week 16, Jefferson passed Odell Beckham Jr. for most receiving yards by a player in his first two NFL seasons.[42] Jefferson finished the season with 1,616 receiving yards, good for second-most in the NFL in 2021, and just 16 yards short of Randy Moss's single-season franchise record.[43][44][45][46] Jefferson was named to the 2022 Pro Bowl, joining Randy Moss and Sammy White as the only three Vikings wide receivers to make Pro Bowls in each of their first two professional seasons.[47][48] For the second consecutive year, Jefferson was named a second-team member of the AP All-Pro team, missing a spot on the first-team by a single vote.[49] He was ranked 17th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2022.[50]

2022: Offensive Player of the Year
See also: 2022 Minnesota Vikings season
Jefferson during pre-game warm-ups in 2022

Against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1, Jefferson caught nine passes for 184 yards and two touchdowns in the 23–7 win.[51] During Week 4 against the New Orleans Saints at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Jefferson finished with 147 receiving yards and a rushing touchdown as the Vikings won 28–25.[52] The following week against Chicago Bears, Jefferson caught a career-high 12 catches resulting in 154 yards receiving in the 29–22 win.[53] Jefferson's third catch of the game marked 227 career receptions, surpassing Randy Moss for the franchise record of the most receptions in the first three years of a career.[54]

Against the Buffalo Bills in Week 10, Jefferson caught 10 passes for a career-high 193 yards and a touchdown as the Vikings went on to win 33–30 in overtime.[55] One of Jefferson's catches came with two minutes left in the fourth quarter where on 4th down and 18, Jefferson made a one-handed catch for 32 yards, wrestling the ball away from Bills cornerback Cam Lewis on the way to the ground. The catch was widely heralded as one of the greatest of all time,[56] and his arm sleeves and gloves from the game were put on display in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.[57] He earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game against the Bills.[58] In Week 12, against the New England Patriots, he had nine receptions for 139 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown in the 33–26 victory.[59] In the game against the Patriots, Jefferson passed Moss for the most receiving yards in a player's first three seasons.[60] He won NFC Offensive Player of the Month for November.[61] In Week 14 against the Detroit Lions, Jefferson recorded 11 receptions for 223 yards, setting the Vikings single-game record for receiving yards, in the 34–23 road loss.[62] Additionally, in week 15 against the Indianapolis Colts, Jefferson recorded 12 receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown, setting his season total to 1,623 yards, a new career high.[63] Against the Green Bay Packers in Week 17, he was held to one catch on five targets for 15 yards, the lowest stats in a game of his career. During the same game, Jefferson appeared to inadvertently hit a referee with his helmet out of clear frustration, and received no punishment for the incident.[64][65] He earned first-team All-Pro honors and a third Pro Bowl nomination for his career.[66][67]

Jefferson finished the 2022 regular season with a league-leading 128 receptions for 1,809 yards and nine total touchdowns (eight receiving, one rushing).[68] He won the Offensive Player of the Year award, as well as being a final candidate for the league MVP award.[69][70]

2023

On October 11, 2023, the Vikings placed Jefferson on injured reserve, due to a hamstring injury suffered in Week 5 against the Kansas City Chiefs.[71]

NFL career statistics
Legend
AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year
Led the league
Bold Career high

Regular season
Year Team Games Receiving Rushing Fumbles
GPGSRecYdsAvgLngTDAttYdsAvgLngTDFumLost
2020MIN 1614881,40015.9717122.02010
2021MIN 17171081,61615.056106142.311011
2022MIN 17171281,80914.16484246.010100
2023MIN 553657115.9523000.00011
Career55533605,39615.0712811403.611132

Postseason
Year Team Games Receiving Fumbles
GPGSRecYdsAvgLngTDFumLost
2022MIN 117476.710000
Career117476.710000

Personal life

His brothers, Jordan and Rickey, also played college football at LSU. Their father, John, played Division II college basketball.[72] On April 27, 2021, Jefferson was the first NFL player to be added to Fortnite with the dance, the Griddy.[73]

References
  1. "Justin Jefferson Stats, Bio, Age, Net Worth, & Career". lines.com. Archived from the original on January 22, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  2. Gillen, Garland (September 16, 2016). "Another Jefferson stars for Destrehan football". fox8live.com. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
  3. Lopez, Andrew (August 3, 2017). "Destrehan's Justin Jefferson added to LSU football team". NOLA.com. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  4. "Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings, Wide Receiver". 247Sports. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
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  6. "Justin Jefferson 2017 Game Log". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
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  8. Guilbeau, Glenn (August 23, 2019). "LSU's Justin Jefferson will transition from Mr. Outside to Mr. Inside at receiver in 2019". The Advertiser.
  9. "Ole Miss at LSU Box Score, September 29, 2018". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  10. "Georgia at LSU Box Score, October 13, 2018". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
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