But they will [know] after this year \u2014I\u2019ll tell you that<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nIt helps that he has a quarterback he fully believes in, both as to what he can do with his legs and as to what he can do with his arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat excites me is his ability to just be an athlete,\u201d Jefferson said regarding Kyler Murray. \u201cEverybody knows what he does when the ball is in his hands, running the ball and being able to create time back there in the pocket. When a play might be dead, he\u2019s able to kind of move with his feet and make something happen. So, you\u2019re always alive, and you\u2019re always just expecting that the ball is going to come your way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut his throwing ability is also something that has really, really surprised me. While he was in Arizona, I didn\u2019t really keep track and pay attention to his arm talent. And seeing the different type of throws he\u2019s making, where he\u2019s throwing the ball, it\u2019s been really, really surprising me.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, Jefferson may be in position to repeatedly heap praise on his quarterback. Last year, he conspicuously bit his tongue. Because he knew what the reaction would be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat one comment that I [might] make about one of my teammates might make headlines and be the trending topic, and that might be a bad look on the team and for me as well,\u201d Jefferson told Silver. \u201cSo just keeping it in house, communicating with my teammates personally and letting them know what\u2019s going on . . . even talking with J.J. [McCarthy] last season and making sure his head is on right, with all of the negativity. Never will I downplay anybody in the media, no matter how bad it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through it all, Jefferson still finished with 1,048 receiving yards \u2014 his sixth straight 1,000-yard season. <\/p>\n
This year, who knows? Maybe he\u2019ll turn the clock back to 2022, when he was a first-team All-Pro and the NFL offensive player of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a time, not all that long ago, that Justin Jefferson was regarded as the best receiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-867657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}