Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell is facing perhaps the most daunting task of his young coaching career: succeeding without Justin Jefferson on the field.
Jefferson will be out at least four weeks due to a hamstring injury suffered Sunday, the first missed games of the wideout’s career. Minnesota officially placed Jefferson on IR on Wednesday and signed wideouts N'Keal Harry and Trishton Jackson to the active roster off the team’s practice squad.
O’Connell is aware that the absence of Jefferson’s ability to tilt the field will alter the Viking’s strategy against opponents.
“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,” O’Connell told SiriusXM NFL Radio on Tuesday. “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.”
In 2023, Jefferson has managed to secure 36 catches, placing him in a tie for the sixth spot in the NFL, and has covered 571 yards to rank third. Additionally, he has scored three receiving touchdowns, which puts him in a tie for fifth. Since 2022, Jefferson has led the NFL with 164 catches and 2,380 yards.
Jefferson has amassed over double the receiving yards of any other player in Minnesota after five games. The only other players to have over 200 receiving yards are Hockenson, with 254 yards, and Addison, with 249 yards.
The Vikings’ offense suffers a massive blow with the loss of Jefferson. The star player can break through any defense and draws a lot of focus, easing the overall effort for the team. Now, the onus is on O’Connell to prove that he can still strategize major plays without the formidable wide receiver.
“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.”
O’Connell gets to test the Jefferson-less operation Sunday against a Chicago Bears defense that has struggled to slow passing attacks, allowing 286.0 passing yards per game (second-most in the NFL) and 12 pass TDs (second-most).
