Tag: Justin Jefferson

Should the Vikings trade for Denzel Mims?

The former second-round pick requested a trade from the Jets. Would the Vikings want to add him to the wide receiver room?

The Minnesota Vikings have a history of trading with the New York Jets. Just last season, they traded a fourth-round pick for tight end Chris Herndon and a sixth-round pick.

There has been a lot of speculation with wide receiver Denzel Mims since the start of head coach Robert Saleh’s tenure with the Jets. Mims was curiously low on the depth chart and still hasn’t played much thus far with only 20 games played in his career.

Mims’ agent Ron Slavin released a statement on behalf of Mims requesting a trade.

It is worth noting that according to the statement, the Jets have told them multiple times. The question remains: who would trade for the former Baylor Bear?

The Carolina Panthers, who made the trade for quarterback Sam Darnold last offseason, have been known to target players who played for head coach Matt Rhule at Temple and Baylor. They kept up with that trend and have contacted the Jets about acquiring the wide receiver.

The question remains: should the Minnesota Vikings trade for Mims?

They had three opportunities to select Mims, but chose to take Justin Jefferson, Jeff Gladney and Ezra Cleveland at those spots in the 2020 draft. While they separated massively once they got to the NFL, they were the consensus fourth and fifth wide receivers in the 2020 draft class. The skillset is there with Mims, he just hasn’t put it together.

Mims is a big-bodied player (6’3/207) who ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash and a 38.5″ vertical jump. He knows how to get the ball at the catch point and win over the top.

His biggest issues are drops (over 11% drop rate at Baylor) and his unwillingness to be physical in contested catch situations.

Is Mims worth a flier? I believe so. The toolset is there and I once believed that he could be a Julio Jones-style receiver. The price would likely be a fifth or sixth-round pick in a swap for another day three pick. He would fit in well as a fourth-fifth option giving the room a big body for red zone and short yardage situations.

The Vikings would be smart to at the very least inquire about Mims but will they want to make a move for him?

Vikings 53-man roster prediction post 49ers game

Updated final roster projections before the Broncos game on Saturday

As it stands now, the Minnesota Vikings are sitting at 80 players on the active roster.

This past Tuesday, they made four roster moves to get them down to 80 players.

As they look towards Saturday’s game against the Denver Broncos, 27 players from that game will not be on the final rosters after cutdown day on Tuesday, August 30th.

As we at the Vikings Wire project forward, here is our latest 53-man roster prediction, including the trade for quarterback Nick Mullens.

(Starters are italicized)

Renfrow in elite NFL company

Hunter Renfrow had a career year in his third NFL campaign last season, when the Las Vegas Raiders receiver recorded career highs with 103 receptions, 1,038 receiving yards and nine receiving touchdowns en route to his first Pro Bowl nod. But just …

Hunter Renfrow had a career year in his third NFL campaign last season, when the Las Vegas Raiders receiver recorded career highs with 103 receptions, 1,038 receiving yards and nine receiving touchdowns en route to his first Pro Bowl nod.

But just how good was the Clemson legend in 2021?

Renfrow’s production last season put him in elite company, as you can see in the following tweet from CBS Sports HQ:

To put just how impressive that is in perspective, consider the players that Renfrow shares the aforementioned list with:

Adams is a two-time first-team All-Pro, five-time Pro Bowler and led the NFL in receiving touchdowns in 2020, while Hill is a six-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro. Jefferson has earned Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors in each of his first two NFL seasons, and Kupp was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP last season. Diggs has a couple of Pro Bowl selections to his name and led the NFL in both receptions and receiving yards in 2020, while Andrews is a two-time Pro Bowler and was a first-team All-Pro last season.

If he keeps performing like he did last season, Renfrow figures to add plenty more accolades himself as he continues throughout his career. It will certainly be fun to watch him this season and see what he does as an encore to his impressive 2021 campaign.

Come out to support Clemson softball at Dear Old Clemson’s second event which is set for August 27 at the Madren Conference Center.  Clemson returns one of the top teams in the nation and adds some new talent to the mix.   If you sign up for certain club levels you get free access to all Dear Old Clemson events or purchase your tickets today at Dear Old Clemson.

The NFL has announced its top 20 players for 2022. Here’s how it should look.

The NFL has announced its list of the top 20 players in the league — in alphabetical order. Here’s how it should go numerically.

Every year, the NFL polls players to rank other players, and from that, there’s the league’s list of the top 100 players. It’s always a controversial list, and there are a lot of questions regarding how much the players actually are involved, but any subjective ranking in any endeavor is going to annoy more people than not. That’s just the way things go.

This year, the NFL has already announced its top players from 100-21, and we’ve already expressed our own issues with the bottom of that list.

The final list of players 20-1 will be shown on the NFL Network on Sunday, August 28, in a three-hour show starting at 8:00 p.m. EST. And just to whet your appetite for that, the NFL has announced the 20 best players in alphabetical order.

Based on our own list of the NFL’s 101 best players (which Mark Schofield and myself split into two parts here and here), here’s how we think the NFL’s top 20 players should look in numerical order.

2022 Minnesota Vikings season previews: Wide Receivers

Our preview series continues with the wide receivers

The 2022 season is less than a month away and it’s time to get excited Vikings fans.

In a similar vein to how fans felt when Mike Zimmer took over for Leslie Frazier, the excitement is palpable for the beginning of the Kevin O’Connell era.

While the team prepares for the season, we are doing the same at the Vikings Wire. We will be producing previews breaking down both each position and the team as a whole.

Today, we continue with our preview series by talking about the wide receivers.

Quarterback Preview
Running Back Preview

Fantasy football: Where to draft Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson

Analyzing Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson’s 2022 fantasy football ADP and where you should target him in your drafts.

It’s rare when a team makes a trade that benefits both teams in a huge way. But that’s what happened when the Minnesota Vikings traded Stefon Diggs to Buffalo for the Bills’ 1st-round draft pick in 2020. The Vikings used the pick on wide receiver Justin Jefferson and he has quickly become one of the NFL’s most dominant receivers.

Below, we look at Justin Jefferson’s 2022 fantasy football average draft position (ADP) and where you should draft him.

In 2 seasons, Jefferson has quickly supplanted Adam Thielen as the most dangerous weapon for quarterback Kirk Cousins. In 33 career games, Jefferson has caught 196 passes for 3,016 yards and 17 touchdowns, climbing his way up fantasy draft charts to be a mid-1st round pick.

Justin Jefferson’s ADP: 6.19

(ADP data courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com; last updated at time of this publishing – ADPs continually change as more drafts occur)

Jefferson has moved all the way up to the No. 2 fantasy wide receiver in the league. He trails only Cooper Kupp (Los Angeles Rams) with an ADP at 5.19 and is ahead of the only other 1st-round receiver Ja’Marr Chase (Cincinnati Bengals) at 9.45 as well as Davante Adams (Las Vegas Raiders) at 13.34.

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Justin Jefferson’s 2021 stats

Games: 17

Receptions | targets: 108 | 167

Receiving yards: 1,616

Receiving touchdowns: 10

Where should you draft Jefferson?

The only issue I have with this pick is that it forces the hand of the owner who takes him to hit running back hard in the 2nd and 3rd rounds because the talent pool dries up quickly there. Every owner needs 1 running back in the first 2 rounds and many jump on 2 RBs with their first couple of picks.

That being said, Jefferson is merely scratching the surface of his talent. He has set extremely high goals for himself because he has backed up everything that was expected of him and exceeded those expectations. Cousins isn’t a great quarterback, but he is accurate and Jefferson has the ability to separate for long gains – he has averaged 91.4 receiving yards a game in his career and averaged 95.1 YPG last year.

When you take a wide receiver this high, it’s a long time until the draft gets back to you and you start taking running backs. Given the high bar he has set and the ability to surpass it, Kupp and Jefferson are the only players I rank as 1st-round talents, so if he’s there in the middle to the end of the round, grab him. You won’t be disappointed.

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LSU football all-time roster: Offensive starters and backups

See which legends made the cut in our all-time LSU football roster, starting with the offensive starters and backups.

Though perhaps best known for the defensive superstars it has produced, LSU has seen no shortage of offensive talent come through Baton Rouge.

This has been even more true in recent years, as the 2019 team alone featured some of the best offensive players the Tigers have ever had. But if you look at the totality of this program’s history, where do the top offensive players land?

We’ve tried our hand at putting together LSU’s all-time two deep, beginning with the offensive side of the ball. Who made the cut for the Tigers?

Check out our other College Wire all-time lineups: Alabama / Arkansas / Auburn / Clemson / Colorado / Florida / Georgia / Iowa / Michigan / Michigan State / Nebraska / North Carolina / Notre Dame / Ohio State / Oklahoma / Oregon / Penn State / Rutgers / Tennessee / Texas / Texas A&M / USC / Wisconsin

WATCH: Justin Jefferson already looks like he’s in mid-season form

It may just be training camp, but Jefferson is back to his usual dominance.

[autotag]Justin Jefferson[/autotag] is coming off of a great 2021 season in which he started in 17 games while making 108 receptions for 1,616 yards and 10 touchdowns. Those stats landed him on the All-Pro Second Team as well as earning him a spot in the Pro Bowl.

Jefferson was a star during his time on the Bayou. He was a member of the 2019 National Championship team and in three seasons at LSU, he caught 165 passes for 2,415 yards and 24 touchdowns. He was drafted in the first round (22nd overall) of the 2020 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings.

He enters his third season in Minnesota in a few weeks as the Vikings are looking to improve after finishing last season 8-9 and not making the playoffs. A vital part of them turning the tide of their record will be how productive the connection of Cousins to Jefferson will be.

Watch as Jefferson makes a spectacular catch during fall training camp.

Alongside former Tiger and current Cincinnati Bengal [autotag]Ja’Marr Chase[/autotag], Jefferson is expected to be one of the NFL’s top receivers once again. He appears to already be in mid-season form judging by the above clip.

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4 Things to Watch Heading Into Week 2 vs San Francisco

The most important game of the preseason is on Saturday

The second week of the preseason is arguably the most important.

Much like week three used to be before the 17th game was added last year, week two is treated like a dress rehearsal. This game has some game planning involved and gives players and teams a true game week experience.

Usually, the starters will play a significant amount of time. Per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, that might not be the case for the Vikings having spent two days facing the 49ers in joint practices.

If they don’t play much on Saturday, it will be great for the young players to get some extra reps in. With the game not meaning anything from a record standpoint, the score is less important than the performance of players and units.

Here are four things that you need to be watching out for during Saturday’s game.

 

There is Nobody Like Justin Jefferson

We are not worthy of Justin Jefferson’s greatness

The Minnesota Vikings might have drafted the best wide receiver in team history at pick 22 of the 2020 NFL draft.

That’s some very high praise considering the Viking also drafted Randy Moss in 1998 and Stefon Diggs, whom Jefferson is forever linked to, in 2014.

During the last two seasons, Jefferson has set numerous receiving records and proven himself to be one of the best wide receivers in the game today.

During practice, Jefferson made a highlight-style catch that would make Sports Center’s Top 10 and he made it look easy.

It’s no secret that Jefferson is having a phenomenal camp and these clips from practice are going to become the norm. This season, Jefferson is about to take his game to a new level with Kevin O’Connell at the helm.

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