1.22 - MIN: Justin Jefferson WR/LSU (Jersey #18)

[VikeManDan]

Thinking Rick correctly read mini run on WR and got his guy. Hard to argue with that. 

Hoping he can come in and run away with #2 spot! Rooting for him!!

[SemperFeist]

1 hour ago, Heimdallr said:

so what was the point of trading Diggs for Jefferson?

The point? To make the best out of a bad situation. 

There was zero indication that the Vikings wanted to trade Diggs, but, for whatever reason, he didn’t want to be here. 

[Klomp]

 

[RpMc]

 

[Taylor0026]

Most did not think he would be here at this point.  Junior coming out of the SEC with massive production numbers last year.  Did well as a sophomore.  5th year option is always nice.

[SemperFeist]

I don’t agree with the philosophy of taking a WR at this spot, especially with how deep this draft is at WR. But I certainly can’t say we reached, or that there were more talented players on the board, etc. 

[Krauser]

Run first team, whatever. They need 2 legitimate WRs. The whole point of Kubiak’s system is that the run opens up intermediate holes in zone and creates one-on-ones for deep shots.

WR is one of the premium positions in the modern game, 2nd most important position on offense. The Vikings have Thielen, who’s legitimately good but turns 30 this summer, and no one else. Starting the season with nothing better than a mid-round rookie opposite Thielen would’ve been a recipe for disaster: teams could double him all day and the Vikings would have no answer.

So why did they trade Diggs? Well obviously, they didn’t want to trade him, but what are you going to do if a star and team leader demands a trade? At least Spielman was a good poker player and got a fair return. I hate the fact that they were forced to trade him, but it happened, and that’s not a good reason not to replace him. In fact, I’d say Diggs was roughly the 2nd most valuable player on the team last year, so replacing him was a huge priority.

Trying to replace Diggs meant finding a receiver with enough speed to get deep, route running skills to get open, and ball skills to be a reliable target. There weren’t that many options beyond the top 3. Reagor is fast but didn’t run much of a route tree and he had a bunch of drops. Mims is athletic and made some circus catches but he also didn’t run much of a route tree (except at the Senior Bowl), plus he’s older and a senior which can be bad news in a 1st round WR. Higgins is a jump ball specialist with mediocre athletic testing. Aiyuk is fast but more of a gadget player, Hamler is fast but tiny and with poor ball skills, Pittman is a good WR (my favorite of those left on the board) but not a great deep threat, and then you’re already down to the Chase Claypools and the Antonio Gandy-Goldens.

Jefferson is a really clean prospect: athletic, young, productive, with route running skills and good hands. He has a very high floor, and a high ceiling too. The concerns about him are mostly theoretical — because he played in the slot last year and saw a lot of zone coverage, it’s not clear that he can play well outside and beat press. But it’s not like he doesn’t have the size, quicks or toughness to do that, and it’s not like he moved to the slot only because he failed as an outside receiver.

The Vikings won’t use him in the slot that much, since they mostly play 2 WR sets. But he could be the slot in a 3 WR set with Sharpe or Johnson coming on to play outside. Kubiak reportedly thinks very highly of Jefferson, and so does most of the draft community and the NFL in general.

This is at worst a solid pick at an obvious position of need.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Krauser

[Mind Character]

Gladney is an Ultra competitive, tough as nails CB.

So many games he took the will and focus from a receiver via mental games and physicality from the 1st to 4th Quarter.

He has some issues locating the ball down the field and making a play on the ball and deficiencies in hip flexibility and functional recovery speed, but to me this is a home run selection.

To walk out of the 1st round with Justin Jefferson who may have some of the best intangible and tangible WR play traits in the draft along with Gladney is an absolute win for the Vikes.

To me, you all have had the best draft thus far.

Both need development and coaching and it's likely they are hit and miss the first 2 years, but by year 3 I think they'll both be bonafide stars.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Mind Character

[Krauser]

 

 

 

[SteelKing728]

Both of our first round picks already looked good in purple! 

Skol!

[Guest]

I'm not thrilled with this pick. Nothing against Jefferson...I think he'll be a decent pro...but there is really good value at WR after the 1st round.  All I can say now is the Vikings BETTER make the trade with DC for Williams, and hope they can restructure the hell out of multiple contracts to be able to afford him.

[Ozzy]

6 hours ago, Krauser said:

Run first team, whatever. They need 2 legitimate WRs. The whole point of Kubiak’s system is that the run opens up intermediate holes in zone and creates one-on-ones for deep shots.

WR is one of the premium positions in the modern game, 2nd most important position on offense. The Vikings have Thielen, who’s legitimately good but turns 30 this summer, and no one else. Starting the season with nothing better than a mid-round rookie opposite Thielen would’ve been a recipe for disaster: teams could double him all day and the Vikings would have no answer.

So why did they trade Diggs? Well obviously, they didn’t want to trade him, but what are you going to do if a star and team leader demands a trade? At least Spielman was a good poker player and got a fair return. I hate the fact that they were forced to trade him, but it happened, and that’s not a good reason not to replace him. In fact, I’d say Diggs was roughly the 2nd most valuable player on the team last year, so replacing him was a huge priority.

Trying to replace Diggs meant finding a receiver with enough speed to get deep, route running skills to get open, and ball skills to be a reliable target. There weren’t that many options beyond the top 3. Reagor is fast but didn’t run much of a route tree and he had a bunch of drops. Mims is athletic and made some circus catches but he also didn’t run much of a route tree (except at the Senior Bowl), plus he’s older and a senior which can be bad news in a 1st round WR. Higgins is a jump ball specialist with mediocre athletic testing. Aiyuk is fast but more of a gadget player, Hamler is fast but tiny and with poor ball skills, Pittman is a good WR (my favorite of those left on the board) but not a great deep threat, and then you’re already down to the Chase Claypools and the Antonio Gandy-Goldens.

Jefferson is a really clean prospect: athletic, young, productive, with route running skills and good hands. He has a very high floor, and a high ceiling too. The concerns about him are mostly theoretical — because he played in the slot last year and saw a lot of zone coverage, it’s not clear that he can play well outside and beat press. But it’s not like he doesn’t have the size, quicks or toughness to do that, and it’s not like he moved to the slot only because he failed as an outside receiver.

The Vikings won’t use him in the slot that much, since they mostly play 2 WR sets. But he could be the slot in a 3 WR set with Sharpe or Johnson coming on to play outside. Kubiak reportedly thinks very highly of Jefferson, and so does most of the draft community and the NFL in general.

This is at worst a solid pick at an obvious position of need.

Agreed, the offense needed a big time weapon to replace Diggs being gone and Jefferson is it.  I have already said he is as close to Diggs in this draft as anyone, very similar in his build, athletic ability and route running.  Kubiak like it said on the draft thinks of Jefferson as his favorite receiver in the draft so why not take him?

The kid will do great, can run all the routes Diggs did, crossing routes especially and has that toughness at the point of contact you want.  Anyone upset with this pick, look around at what was there, all the great high level players were gone so they had to make this pick and Jefferson was the best player available no doubt about it.  I agree he should easily be able to play outside and to call him only a slot receiver is a joke.  

 

Great pick and considering who was there at the time, it is really quite awesome.  Assuming one can fill that need in the 2nd or 3rd round is a big assumption.  Now time for OG in the 2nd round and hopefully one of the better guards falls down.  

[Illadelegend215]

I don’t like this one tbh. We traded away our top receiver, who has a claim to be top 10 receiver in the entire nfl, just to pick a guy who has done a majority of damage in the same position that our now defacto number one pass catcher is at his best? Basically we traded Stefon diggs for Justin Jefferson. This pick could have gone to the best oLineman that fits our needs. Even if this kid becomes a stud, we will simply underutilize him and be in the same freakin predicament. I hope he can play outside and run block really well, but it doesn’t even matter because he won’t get much targets smh. 

[battle2heaven]

Justin Jefferson is an underrated athlete. You don't notice it when he plays, because he's so smooth and graceful, but the subtle hints and nuances are there in his footwork, route running and body control.

According to RAS, he has the 4th best RAS in this receiver class at 9.69. For comparison, Denzel Mims is 9.76

Here's Jefferson's RAS card. One underrated factor, his 33 inch arms! He also had an absurd contested catch rate last year of 92% (https://www.pff.com/news/draft-2020-nfl-draft-why-lsus-justin-jefferson-may-be-the-best-slot-receiver-in-the-class)

So this isn't like a Treadwell situation where they plucked a SEC receiver with subpar athleticism. Jefferson is graceful, agile, fearless, and productive. In all honesty, when I watch him play, he reminds me of Adam Thielen. 

Also here is another article showcasing his ability to win on the boundary; which he played the majority of 2018.

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2020/04/06/scouting-breakdown-why-lsus-justin-jefferson-is-more-than-a-slot-receiver/

[Illadelegend215]

4 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Agreed, the offense needed a big time weapon to replace Diggs being gone and Jefferson is it.  I have already said he is as close to Diggs in this draft as anyone, very similar in his build, athletic ability and route running.  Kubiak like it said on the draft thinks of Jefferson as his favorite receiver in the draft so why not take him?

The kid will do great, can run all the routes Diggs did, crossing routes especially and has that toughness at the point of contact you want.  Anyone upset with this pick, look around at what was there, all the great high level players were gone so they had to make this pick and Jefferson was the best player available no doubt about it.  I agree he should easily be able to play outside and to call him only a slot receiver is a joke.  

 

Great pick and considering who was there at the time, it is really quite awesome.  Assuming one can fill that need in the 2nd or 3rd round is a big assumption.  Now time for OG in the 2nd round and hopefully one of the better guards falls down.  

So when we ignore him the same way we ignored diggs, what does that do for us? We are a run first team, we should be addressing our defense or oline. The problem we have is that we only truly utilize one wide receiver when passing the ball. If thielen is as special as you all think he is, we could afford to wait and drafted a receiver today. We have a terrible offensive line and we lost some artillery on defense. Why not focus on that instead?