5. Justin Jefferson, LSU
Height: 6’1″ Weight: 202
40-Yard Dash: 4.43 seconds
Bench Press: N/A
Vertical Jump: 37.5 inches
Broad Jump: 10 feet 6 inches
3-Cone Drill: N/A
20-Yard Shuttle: N/A
60-Yard Shuttle: N/A
Bio: A three-star recruit coming out of Destrehan High School in Destrehan, Louisiana where he was a two-way player for their football team, Justin Jefferson followed his older brothers to LSU. He was used sparingly in 2017 as a true freshman, but earned a starting wide receiver spot as a sophomore in 2018. That season he played nearly 700 offensive snaps – the bulk of them as an outside receiver – and caught 54 passes for 875 yards and six touchdowns in an offensive that relied heavily on the rushing attack.
Last year the Tigers reinvented their passing game under the direction of passing game coordinator Joe Brady, and Jefferson shifted into the slot for the high-flying LSU offense. He caught 111 passes on on 134 targets for a massive 1,540 yards and 18 touchdowns, averaging 13.9 yards per reception.
Jefferson built on the solid production for the Tigers with a stellar performance at the Combine, which has many analysts considering him a first-round lock.
Stat to Know: LSU quarterbacks had a passer rating of 121.4 when targeting Jefferson in 2018, the season he played 553 of his 697 snaps along the boundary. We will return to that in a minute.
Strengths: Truthfully, Jefferson should have been in the first-round discussion even before his performance in Indianapolis. This past season LSU used him on a ton of routes working across the middle, and Jefferson is fearless attacking that area of the field. He willingly puts himself into harm’s way but does not let that impact how he goes and gets the football between the hashmarks. He is deadly working over the middle against zone coverage, and has demonstrated a consistent ability to find the soft spots in zone schemes and make himself available for his quarterback. This would make him almost a perfect fit in an offense like Minnesota’s, where so much of their passing game is built off of outside zone play-action plays where the quarterback rolls out.
Jefferson also has supreme confidence in his hands, and almost every reception — regardless of where he is on the field — is made with his hands fully extended from his frame. It is rare to see him let the football into his chest. He is also a master of contested catch situations. According to charting data from Pro Football Focus, Jefferson owned the best contested catch conversion rate of any receiver in this draft class.
Jefferson also is adept at working in scramble drill situations. Sure, it helped to have a quarterback like Joe Burrow who excelled in that area, but he shows great awareness of space, maintains a solid relationship with his QB and keeps working until the whistle to give his quarterback a downfield option in those moments.
Not that blocking is a huge part of playing the wide receiver position, but as a blocker Jefferson wants to punch you in the mouth until the whistle blows. He plays with a chip on his shoulder when asked to block, and some of my favorite reps of his come when he is blocking downfield.
Weaknesses: Many list of weaknesses regarding Jefferson begin with the idea that he is simply a slot receiver and when considering using a first-round selection on him, there is better value to be had in the draft. Of his 937 snaps in 2019, a staggering 870 of those came from the slot. PFF charted him with just five snaps on the outside. As a result, most of his production this season – his huge breakout year – came when he was working from the slot, against off coverage, and with a “two-way go” in space.
But let’s return to that “Stat to Know” for a second. Back in 2018, when LSU was more of a run-first offense and Jefferson played the majority of his snaps outside, passers had a QB rating of 121.4 when targeting him when he aligned to the boundary. When you watch film of him from 2018 – and expect this to be the subject of a much deeper analysis – you see him doing the things you want from an outside WR.
Like selling the cornerback on the vertical route before snapping inside on a Bang 8 post route from an outside alignment, plus some yardage after the catch in traffic:
Or running a textbook stop route against press alignment:
If your concerns about Jefferson are of the “he is a slot receiver only” variety, then if you look at his 2018 film you will see examples of him doing what you want boundary receivers to do, with production numbers to back up his tape.
If there are areas he could clean up, he tends to get knocked off routes at times due to contact, and he might need to add some size to his frame. That could slow him down a bit, making his speed and change-of-direction ability less of an advantage.
Conclusion: Jefferson has two seasons of solid production and tape where he was used in completely different roles. That should work in his favor, but instead many seem willing to view him as purely a slot receiver. Again, he has shown the ability to operate along the boundary and as such, teams should view him as a versatile receiver who can fill multiple spots in a passing game. Sure, he can operate from the slot and has he displayed in 2019, be very effective. But if put along the outside as a Z receiver, Jefferson can also beat press coverage and create separation on his own, without relying on scheme or design. Consider this: Great teams like the New England Patriots often ask the right question when it comes to evaluating pro or college prospects. That question is “What can he do?” Other teams tend to dwell on the negative, and wonder “What can’t he do?” Teams that take the more negative approach with Jefferson and isolate him as purely a slot receiver, are going to regret passing on him.
Comparison: Watching Jefferson I see a lot of JuJu Smith-Schuster. A player who might begin his career inside and may ultimately be best used as a slot receiver, but someone with the skillset to play on the boundary as well.
Lamb | Jeudy | Ruggs III | Shenault | Jefferson | Higgins | Mims | Reagor | Aiyuk | Pittman | Johnson