EAGAN, Minn. \u2014 The\u00a0Minnesota Vikings\u00a0will keep wide receiver Justin Jefferson off the field for a while because of a mild strain of his left hamstring.<\/p>\n
Coach Kevin O’Connell said before practice on Friday that Jefferson would be re-evaluated next week. The two-time All-Pro, who has the most receiving yards in\u00a0NFL\u00a0history through a player’s first five years, felt some tightness in both of his legs during the team’s session on Thursday and cut short his participation as a precaution.<\/p>\n
The Vikings later sent him for an MRI exam, which revealed what O’Connell described as a \u201cvery mild\u201d strain of his left hamstring. O’Connell said he had no concern about Jefferson being ready for the season opener at Chicago on Sept. 8, which is more than six weeks away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be really cautious, obviously,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cI credit Justin just for his ability to recognize how he was feeling, and the fact we were able to avoid anything major.\u201d<\/p>\n
Considering his value to the team, the type of the injury and the demands of his position, Jefferson figures to miss more than just a few days of training camp practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to want to be smart with him knowing we\u2019ve got quite a bit of time to prepare,\u201d O’Connell said. \u201cWe know Justin, at this point in his career, is going to be ready to roll.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jefferson said as much during his post-practice interview with reporters on Thursday, before the strain was diagnosed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course with the recent injuries I\u2019ve had and the stuff I\u2019ve gone through before, just taking precaution of just understanding it\u2019s the second day of camp, not the 30th, so just making sure I\u2019m really healthy and I\u2019m good to go, especially when the season starts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jefferson suffered a\u00a0strain of his right hamstring\u00a0in 2023 that caused him to miss seven games. During that absence, Kirk Cousins tore his right Achilles tendon in what turned out to be his his final game with Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Cousins forged a strong connection with Jefferson on just about every route and every place on the field, providing a measure of stability that sure didn’t hurt Jefferson’s immediate launch into the elite level of the sport. Now he’s caught passes from five quarterbacks over the last two years, and\u00a0J.J. McCarthy will make it six this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness happens and things change, so I can\u2019t really rely on just trying to have the same quarterback,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cIt\u2019s just all about building with that quarterback I have at that moment, and I feel like just talking with J.J. and being his locker mate, he definitely has his head on straight and that confidence to go out there and perform every single week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jefferson spent another off-season honing his techniques with a specific focus on beating those double coverages he faces so often, from his release off the line to the footwork at the top of his route. His work with McCarthy, naturally, includes a steady dose of persuasion to be willing to throw the ball his way when it might look at first like he’s not open.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou definitely have to have patience. He\u2019s pretty much a rookie. Last year doesn\u2019t really count for him,\u201d Jefferson said, adding: \u201cBut we do have the expectation of him being great, him coming out here every single day and working his butt off, and progressing every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAGAN, Minn. \u2014 The\u00a0Minnesota Vikings\u00a0will keep wide receiver Justin Jefferson off the field for a while because of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-24958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}