With Justin Jefferson out for at least four weeks while on injured reserve, the Vikings will have to adjust.
The club does have talented rookie Jordan Addison, receiver K.J. Osborn, and tight end T.J. Hockenson to help pick up the slack. But Jefferson’s presence and production will surely be missed.
“He’s been healthy and available for every game since, I think, 2020, so you haven’t really seen what that might look like,” quarterback Kirk Cousins said on Wednesday. “I think defenses are so well prepared that they’ll still then go by, ‘OK, whoever else is left, how do we want to defend that?’ So, there’s still going to be a very intentional, prepared approach from them that will be calculated.
“But you never really know. And we never knew how they were going to defend Justin from week to week, you know? You had your ideas, but you also knew that it’s multiple. So sometimes defending Justin, they can do it in completely different ways on back-to-back plays. That variety, I think, also helps us be prepared maybe for what we could see now.”
Cousins noted that while it’s of course tough to lose Jefferson, the Vikings have to keep going. That’s how the league works, Cousins said.
“[W]e still have our system, and we’ve still gotta run our system,” Cousins said. “That probably doesn’t change. But I think it’ll be a lot of other people who can contribute. It probably wouldn’t be the focus on Justin as much as using all five eligibles.”
We’ll see how Minnesota adjusts without Jefferson on Sunday afternoon when the club takes on Chicago.