There’s still a fire burning inside Justin Jefferson. The Minnesota Vikings’ pilot light hasn’t gone out, even in a 4-8 season. He had only two catches for four yards in Seattle last Sunday. Still, a cold, dark December hasn’t snuffed out his furnace.
“I hate being in this situation and losing these games,” he admitted on Thursday. “But they’re going to be better times. There’s going to be a time where people turn on that TV, and they’re talking all about us.”
Five of Minnesota’s first seven games were “island” games, or the only NFL game on television. J.J. McCarthy’s return home to Chicago was in primetime, and so was the home opener, where they honored Jared Allen. In Weeks 4 and 5, football fans across the nation woke up to the Vikings playing the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns in Dublin and London.
Only Minnesota’s Week 3 game, a blowout win over the Cincinnati Bengals, wasn’t in primetime.
However, few outside of Minnesota have seen the Vikings fall. Aside from the Thursday night game where the Los Angeles Chargers filleted them in LA, the Vikings have dissipated in darkness. Minnesota’s lone win after the bye was in Detroit, where McCarthy looked normal, sparking hope in a lost season.
But that hope soon faded. The Vikings lost control after Kevin O’Connell’s ill-fated third-down call against the Baltimore Ravens. A special teams blunder cost them against the Chicago Bears at home. McCarthy had his worst game in Green Bay, and the Max Brosmer-led offense couldn’t score in Seattle.
Perhaps most concerning of all, the typically gregarious Jefferson didn’t have anything to say after the Seattle Seahawks shut them out last week.
“We lost and, obviously, I just feel like it’s the same thing,” Jefferson said on Thursday. “I’m going to be sitting there telling y’all guys the same exact thing that I’ve said for the past couple of weeks. The offense needs to get better, and we need to focus up and execute, and all of the things that we’ve been saying the whole season.”
Whether he’ll admit it or not, that has to be draining. He’s lit the world on fire when he’s playing O’Connell’s offense with a veteran quarterback like Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnold. Jefferson averaged 1,608.3 yards in his first three seasons, torching Randy Moss’s records along the way.
Jefferson made the Pro Bowl in four of his first five seasons. He only missed it in 2023 when he suffered a hamstring injury, and Joshua Dobbs threw him a hospital ball in Vegas. Still, Jefferson isn’t immune to the Vikings’ every-other-year phenomenon.
Mike Zimmer didn’t start him in Minnesota’s first two games during the quarantine, and didn’t meet with him or let him break Moss’ records in 2021. The Vikings went 11-0 in one-score games during O’Connell’s first season, but went 0-1 against Brian Daboll, Daniel Jones, and the New York Giants in the playoffs. 2023 became a lost season; last year, they lost in the playoffs as favorites again.
However, Jefferson leaned into Minnesota’s unexpected run last year when finding hope for this team next year. Vegas had the Vikings’ over-under at 6.5 to begin last season, and they won 14.
“Before [last season], they counted us out,” Jefferson recalled. “They didn’t really think we were going to be anything. And then, when you turn on the TV late in the year, Week 12 last year, they’re talking about us, and we’re so highly favored and all of this.”
The Vikings had a weird stretch last year, starting with a close game against the Joe Flacco-led Indianapolis Colts at home in Week 9, and ending with Sam Darnold’s breakout in a win over Kirk Cousins’ Atlanta Falcons in Week 14. Darnold’s three-interception game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 10 was the low point.
However, Jefferson kept the light on, and the Vikings went on to torch teams after the Atlanta game until they lost to the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams again, ending their season.
A pilot light is a small gas flame that serves as an ignition source for a more powerful burner. Water heaters, central heating systems, and fireplaces have pilot lights. Like a pilot light, Jefferson’s competitive fire burns, even in a losing season. But he can’t power the Vikings on his own. He needs good quarterback play and other targets who deflect defensive attention from him.
Jefferson has remained patient in a losing season. The Vikings elected not to franchise tag Darnold after he threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns last year. Instead, they turned to first-year starter McCarthy, who has thrown for six touchdowns and ten interceptions in six games this year.
Jefferson has supported McCarthy throughout his development. He says he’s seen him play well in practice and believes he’ll translate it to the games. Still, there’s not much he can say when McCarthy plays as he did in Green Bay, and Minnesota’s replacements – Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer – aren’t fully maximizing his talents.
“You see so many receivers around the league just kind of be a me guy, and he’s not a me guy,” said McCarthy. “Obviously, it’s frustrating. He’s the greatest in the world and is going through tough times.
“But the way he’s responded, the way he’s acted towards me, and just how he wears that C on his chest, it’s something amazing. That just amplifies his ability as a player.”
Still, we shouldn’t mistake Jefferson’s silence for compliance. The Vikings can’t be complacent with his patience. He is the light in Minnesota’s darkness — a game-breaking player who can turn them into champions.
But right now, Justin Jefferson is a pilot light in an empty boiler room.
