Despite finishing with at least 1,000 receiving yards for the sixth year in a row, the 2025 season for star Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson likely isn't one he will look back on fondly.
In 2025, Jefferson ended with single-season career lows in catches per game (4.9), receiving yards per game (61.6), touchdowns (2), catch percentage (59.6), and receiving success rate (46.1 percent). It was also the first time during his tenure in the league that he wasn't selected to a Pro Bowl roster after playing all 17 games.
Needless to say, Jefferson will be looking to remind a lot of people during the 2026 season why he should still be regarded as the best receiver in the NFL.
His focus on doing that was very evident in an appearance on the "This is Football with Kevin Clark" podcast earlier this week when he shared his reaction to being ranked behind former LSU teammate and current Cincinnati Bengals receiver Ja'Marr Chase in a recent ESPN wide receiver top-10 list.
"It makes me laugh, and it also makes me a little bit angry, but that's been my whole entire career. That's been my whole entire life.
Not really people giving me the satisfaction or the credit that I really [deserve]. But it is what it is. That's what makes me grind a little bit harder.
Obviously, going off of last year and seeing the year that I've had, it's normal for people to put me below [where] they had me before.
So it's just all about proving to everybody again, like I've already done multiple times. It's nothing really new to the goals or to the accomplishments.
It's just continue to do what I do best: going out there, catching the ball, and hopefully get into the end zone a lot more this year.”
For the sake of Justin Jefferson, the Minnesota Vikings need better play from their QBs in 2026
Minnesota is currently paying Jefferson an average of $35 million per year, so what happened with him on the field in 2025 absolutely cannot happen again in 2026.
To be fair to the All-Pro receiver, though, much of his drop in production last season had to do with the struggles experienced by the Vikings' quarterbacks.
Two of the three guys in Minnesota's quarterback room had never started a regular-season game in the NFL prior to last year (J.J. McCarthy and Max Brosmer), and it showed with their inability to get Jefferson the ball.
Thankfully, the Vikings went out and added a veteran quarterback with a ton of starting experience this offseason when they signed Kyler Murray in free agency.
Murray might not play at the same level that Sam Darnold did with Minnesota in 2024, but his addition to the starting lineup should help Jefferson get back to putting up the elite-level numbers that everyone had become so accustomed to during his time in the NFL.
Whatever happens at the quarterback position for the Vikings in the 2026 season, it can't be a repeat of what took place in 2025. Because if something similar goes down, Jefferson might end up wanting to catch passes in an entirely different uniform in 2027.
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