Vikings lock up Justin Jefferson: Three reasons why Minnesota all but aced 2024 NFL offseason

After much ado, Justin Jefferson is locked up for the long haul in Minnesota, with the Vikings signing the star wide receiver Monday to a four-year contract extension worth a reported $140 million, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL.

The record deal, which ties Jefferson to the Vikings through 2028, doesn’t just bring a rich resolution to a much-discussed contract saga, resetting the wide receiver market and keeping one of the game’s top playmakers where he began his NFL career. It also confirms that Minnesota effectively aced the 2024 offseason, at least on paper.

Here are three reasons why:

1. They retained an elite lineup of skill weapons

By locking up Jefferson (at a perfectly reasonable rate, by the way, considering fellow wideouts like A.J. Brown and Amon-Ra St. Brown recently cleared $30 million per year on their extensions), the Vikings enter 2024 with some of the best — and financially motivated — playmakers in the league. Consider their top offensive talent:

Jones is obviously a one-year rental, and Hockenson is coming off a serious injury, but most teams would kill to have a foursome of this caliber. Jefferson and Addison have both the athletic upside and proven NFL ability to become arguably the best wide receiver duo in the league. And even Jones, the oldest of the bunch, showed game-changing juice at the tail end of 2023, and figures to benefit from a shared backfield in Minnesota.

2. They finally opened new possibilities at quarterback

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You can’t do much with skill weapons if you don’t have a signal-caller to distribute the rock, and while the Vikings said goodbye to a proven commodity in Kirk Cousins this offseason, they also opened themselves to the possibility of higher upside over the longer term. The best…

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Author : Cody Benjamin

Publish date : 2024-06-03 14:24:36

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