Vikings: Kevin O’Connell takes good highway addressing Justin Jefferson’s OTA absence
The Vikings are absolutely conscious of Justin Jefferson’s absence from workforce OTAs this 12 months, they usually’ve addressed the scenario with as a lot tact as attainable.
The Minnesota Vikings have sufficient dilemmas to take care of this offseason: Dalvin Prepare dinner’s ongoing scenario, Kirk Cousins enjoying hardball, and the ghosts of final season coming again to hang-out them.
The very last thing they want is for his or her star vast receiver to begin appearing out, and it looks as if Justin Jefferson is beginning his season away from the workforce.
Crew OTAs are thought-about voluntary and there’s no expectation for veterans to attend the exercises, however the concept is that the extra gamers attend, the higher workforce chemistry will probably be at the start of the season.
Jefferson was one Viking who selected to decide out of OTAs and has been MIA this previous week.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell addressed Jefferson’s absence at a presser and mentioned all the suitable issues to this point:
Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell addresses Justin Jefferson absence at OTAs
The upshot of O’Connell’s interview was: We hope to see Jefferson quickly. We’ve had a dialogue about it, and the remainder of the workforce can’t wait to begin figuring out with him.
Mainly, it was coach-talk for: There’s no downside with Justin Jefferson in Minnesota.
Jefferson is coming off one other transcendent season with a league-leading 128 catches and 1,809 yards and needs to be arrange for an additional productive season in Yr 4. Captain Kirk will probably be throwing him passes but once more in probably his final 12 months on the Vikings; one attainable motive for Jefferson’s absence is that he’s probably feeling the inner warmth of the Vikings’ newest crises and could also be second-guessing his personal future on the workforce.
The Vikings brass have acknowledged over and over that extending Jefferson, who’s nonetheless enjoying on his rookie contract, is the franchise’s utmost precedence shifting ahead.
Nevertheless, Minnesota additionally should take care of the truth that their high signal-caller could also be leaving after 2023, and the workforce doesn’t have a strong contingency plan for the post-Cousins period.
Primarily based on what O’Connell mentioned, the workforce and followers don’t have anything to fret about with regards to Jefferson’s dedication, and the group expects the 2022 Offensive Participant of the Yr to be again within the fold by mid-June, when voluntary actions flip obligatory.
