It always felt like Justin Jefferson was tempting fate when he playfully grabbed at his hamstring after touchdowns.
It made fans anxious, and the football gods are vengeful. In Week 5 of the 2023 season, Jefferson pulled up limp on a non-contact play against the Kansas City Chiefs. His hamstring injury lingered until the Week 14 game in Vegas, where Joshua Dobbs’ hospital ball sent Jets to the emergency room and grounded the Passtronaut on the sideline.
Jefferson has been a Pro Bowler every year except for 2023. He returned to form last season, playing all 17 games and finishing with 1,553 receiving yards. There were no signs of a lingering hamstring injury.
Still, it’s hard not to be concerned when the Minnesota Vikings announced that Jefferson suffered a mild left hamstring strain during Thursday’s practice, especially after J.J. McCarthy’s injury seemed innocuous at first last year.
“We’re going to be really cautious, obviously,” O’Connell said regarding Jefferson on Friday. “It is not the same leg from a couple years ago.”
Jefferson didn’t re-injure his hamstring, but those injuries linger. O’Connell says the Vikings will “re-evaluate him next week,” and that there are “no concerns” about his availability for Week 1 in Chicago.
“All I worry about is the next time we’re evaluating him and see how he can start working back in,” O’Connell said. “We’re going to want to be smart with him, knowing we’ve got quite a bit of time to prepare.”
Jefferson’s injury is concerning because he’s Minnesota’s effervescent engine, a launching pad for McCarthy’s career. However, it feels more alarming because of how McCarthy’s situation played out last year.
McCarthy showed out against the Las Vegas Raiders in his first preseason game with the Vikings. He went 11 for 17 for 188 yards and two touchdowns, including connecting on a bomb to his left.
However, the Vikings held him out of a Monday night practice following their first preseason game due to “right knee soreness.”
“Out of precaution, we’re going to continue an evaluation on him and get some more testing done,” O’Connell said. “Very important player, obviously, so want to make sure we’re smart about it before he participates. Making sure we have a good understanding of where he’s at.”
There was no play in the game where it looked like McCarthy injured himself. No Raiders player made hard contact with McCarthy’s knee, and he didn’t get caught in the U.S. Bank Stadium turf.
“We’re trying to figure out maybe when it happened,” O’Connell said, “but he just came in with some kind of routine soreness that a lot of guys after their first preseason game sometimes come in with, and it was something we wanted to be smart about.”
A reporter asked O’Connell whether there’s any reason to believe McCarthy’s injury was anything more than “routine” soreness.
“At this point,” he responded, “I really don’t.”
Alas, McCarthy experienced more than routine soreness. An MRI revealed that he had injured his meniscus, and he would become the first first-round pick in the modern draft era (since 1967) to miss his entire rookie season due to injury.
The Vikings probably weren’t trying to be deceitful with McCarthy’s injury, just like they’re not with Jefferson’s injury this season. Still, it’s only natural to have that sinking feeling when you hear that Jefferson injured his hamstring.
McCarthy’s knee soreness turned out to be a season-ending injury; Jefferson’s non-contact hamstring injury waylaid his 2023 season. He likely will be fine this season, but nothing is ever normal in Minnesota’s purple malaise. A hint of fatalism is merely a reminder that the Vikings are back in earnest.
