Exactly one month from today, the Minnesota Vikings will (most likely) set their team’s future orientation by selecting a quarterback with a higher draft pick than at any other point in franchise history. While they currently have two first-round picks, at #11 and #23, the idea is that they will utilize those picks and whatever other ammunition they need to trade to move up and draft a future quarterback.
Whatever their plans are, they’re ensuring that the greatest player on the roster right now is kept well informed of what’s going on.
Alec Lewis of The Athletic has some of the news from Kevin O’Connell’s appearance today at the NFL League Meetings in Orlando, and one of the key takeaways is that the team is keeping Justin Jefferson informed about their quarterback hunt.
“That could go a long way for a young quarterback to have a guy like that,” O’Connell said, “in addition to Brian O’Neill, T.J. Hockenson, Jordan Addison and Aaron Jones. Consider what we currently have in our offensive foundation, and I believe this is a very remarkable period. “I know Justin is looking at it like that as well, and my hope is that we’ll get his contract done, and he continues to be that pillar of leadership that I see within our team.”
We’ve said numerous times in this space that if the Vikings want to ensure that Jefferson stays in the fold, he needs to be a part of what the team is doing for the long term. At this point, it’s not entirely clear what Jefferson’s role in this process is or how much input he’s had, but the head coach has made it clear that the NFL’s best wide receiver is being kept up to speed on what the team is doing and that his expectation is that Jefferson is going to be here for the long term.
I’m guessing we won’t know the full extent of Jefferson’s involvement in this process until after the Draft or after his extension is finalized. . .the latter of which will hopefully be coming any day now. . .but he’s definitely a part of the process.
