Throughout his career, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson has been productive no matter who his quarterback has been. So as the team moved forward with J.J. McCarthy as their signal caller this year, Jefferson maintained his stock in fantasy football drafts as one of the first two or three wide receivers off the board.
Through Week 10, Jefferson is WR13 in full PPR scoring. He went without a touchdown from Week 2 through Week 8, but sheer target volume went a long way to sustaining him as WR14 over that span.
In McCarthy's first start back from an ankle injury, Week 9 against the Detroit Lions, Jefferson got off the scoring schneid along with a 36 percent target share (nine targets on 25 pass attempts). In Week 10 against the Baltimore Ravens, things took a turn toward the negative.
Something seemed a little off with Jefferson throughout the game against Baltimore, but the bottom line is this: He had 12 targets, but with just four catches for 37 yards as McCarthy struggled with accuracy.
It was also the first time this season Jefferson failed to reach double-digit fantasy points in full PPR.
Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson fantasy managers have a new reality to get right with
Jefferson's Week 10 performance easily landed in the bust category as Beckett Mesko of Pro Football Focus took a look at boom and bust fantasy performances from the week.
"Week 10 marked back-to-back rough games for Jefferson, who is averaging only 12.8 PPR points per game over the past two games with J.J. McCarthy as his quarterback."
"The Vikings' offense started hot and then could not get going, plagued by eight false start penalties and two interceptions on balls that targeted Jefferson."
"McCarthy could not get on the same page with Jefferson, who led the team in targets (12) but saw just five catchable passes. If McCarthy can’t turn things around, we might finally get to the point where quarterback play does matter for Justin Jefferson."
Each week, Mesko offers a "temperature check" rest of the season bottom line assessment for each player who had a boom or bust performance. He had a sobering new reality for Jefferson's fantasy managers to ponder after his showing in Week 10.
"Temperature Check: High-end WR2 for now."
There are certainly worse things than being a high-end WR2 in fantasy, to this point in the season or projected for the rest of the season. It's just not what Jefferson's fantasy managers signed up for when they drafted him. Week-to-week consistency is likely to be elusive from here on out, too, in line with the inconsistency of his young quarterback.