Vikings fans populating Overreaction City after Justin Jefferson comments
By Adam Patrick
Some believe Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson was taking shots at Kirk Cousins during a recent radio appearance.
Heading into year two of his tenure with the Minnesota Vikings, Justin Jefferson has to be excited about his potential to perform even better than he did during his record-breaking rookie season.
Jefferson will be looking to improve upon his 2020 numbers and having Kirk Cousins return as the Vikings‘ starting quarterback should help him accomplish this.
Cousins and Jefferson saw their connection on the field grow stronger and stronger as each week of the season passed by in 2020. Will the young Minnesota receiver continue to be Cousins’ favorite target during the majority of the 2021 campaign?
Justin Jefferson talks about the Minnesota Vikings reported interest in Justin Fields
On Tuesday, Jefferson was kind enough to take some time out of his day to join the FOX Sports radio show “The Herd with Colin Cowherd”.
Giving who he was dealing with, the Vikings pass-catcher had to know he was going to be asked some questions that related to Cousins. And that’s exactly what happened.
First, Jefferson was asked to compare Cousins to his former quarterback at LSU and current Cincinnati Bengals signal-caller, Joe Burrow.
Here’s what the Minnesota receiver had to say about these two passers.
"“Kirk and Joe throw similar balls. [They don’t have] the strongest arm, but they’re going to get it to you exactly where you need them to throw it.The thing about Joe that’s a little bit different, I feel like Joe has a little bit more swagger. He has that confidence on the field and he’s not scared to get hit. I feel like, as a quarterback, that’s a big trait to have, especially to be as young as he is. He’s a phenomenal quarterback.”"
So Jefferson started his answer by saying both Cousins and Burrow excel at getting the football where their guys need it to make a play. But his comment on how the two quarterbacks are different is causing some to have a puzzling reaction.
Some believe that this was Jefferson “taking a shot” at Cousins, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Vikings receiver was just simply talking about someone in Burrow who was selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft a few months after leading LSU to a National Championship. It would be incredibly odd if Burrow wasn’t very confident in himself after these two monumental accomplishments.
Then Cowherd asked Jefferson if he was surprised that Minnesota was reportedly interested in drafting former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. His answer to this question is what really caused all of the one-way tickets to Overreaction City to fly off the shelves.
"“No [I wasn’t surprised]. We have to build on for after Kirk or whatever the case may be. But having Justin Fields brings a little bit more pressure to other teams by having a dominant quarterback like he is.”"
Obviously, this was Jefferson going out of his way to say Cousins isn’t a duel-threat quarterback or one of the most dominant passers in the NFL today. Not quite. But even if that’s what he meant with his answer (which he didn’t), Cousins, himself, wouldn’t even disagree with him.
No one is pounding the table to argue that Cousins is a clone of Lamar Jackson or that the current Minnesota quarterback is the dominating out on the field like a prime Tom Brady.
Which is why there is no reason to believe that neither of Jefferson’s answers to these two questions from Cowherd were meant to “take a shot” at Cousins.
For those who haven’t noticed, Jefferson is not someone who is afraid to speak his mind on or off of the field. This was just another case of him providing honest answers to the questions he was asked.
Nothing more and nothing less.