Justin Jefferson’s three stellar seasons have failed to convince Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell that the star pick-up has reached his full potential.
“This sounds crazy, leading the league in yards and receptions, I think he and I just scratched the surface of where we want to go as an offense, especially when he’s our top recipient,” O’Connell said this week at the NFL Scouting Combine.
O’Connell, a former NFL QB, calls the plays for Minnesota.
Jefferson, AP’s Offensive Player of the Year, had 10 games at 100 yards in O’Connell’s first season as head coach.
In 2022, Jefferson leads the league in yards (1,809) and hits (128) and finished fifth in the NFL’s MVP vote. He has the most yards received in NFL history for a player in his first three seasons.
Jefferson’s 1,809 yards received in 2022 established a Viking season recordsurpassing Randy Moss’s 2003 achievement (1,632) set in the 16-game era.
Jefferson’s total yards received in 2022 puts him sixth on the all-time list in a single season, behind Antonio Brown (1,834), Jerry Rice (1,848), Julio Jones (1,871), Cooper Kupp (1,947). ) and record holder Calvin Johnson (1,964)
With most of the Vikings starting to attack and the coaching staff attacking again, Jefferson could achieve similar success in 2023.
To hit Johnson’s best record, Jefferson would need to average about 116 yards at pick-up in 17 regular games of the season.
