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Justin Jefferson tired of hearing about trades (1: 06)
Justin Jefferson explains why he’s focused on the current season and doesn’t want to talk about trades for next season. (1: 06)
Kevin Seifert, ESPN Staff WriterSep 28, 2023, 03: 24 PM ET
- Kevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has covered the NFL for over 20 years, joining ESPN in 2008. He was previously a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Times. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia. You can follow him via Twitter @SeifertESPN.
EAGAN, Minn. — The bad news about the Minnesota Vikings‘ season is obvious: They are one of four winless teams in the NFL. The good news, receiver Justin Jefferson said Thursday, is that there are far too many games remaining to begin drawing conclusions about their season’s fate.
Speaking to a group of reporters in the Vikings’ locker room, in fact, Jefferson said he is tired of hearing about how their 0-3 start could impact plans for 2024 and whether some players will or should be traded to stockpile draft picks.
“At the end of the day it’s not going to be perfect every time,” said Jefferson, whose NFL-high 458 receiving yards is a league record for the first three weeks of a season. “There’s things that you’ve got to go through throughout the season to really tell if you’re going to be a great team or not. We’re handling adversity early in the season with the turnovers and being 0-3, but there is a whole bunch of more games to go.
“I’m tired of people saying that we’re looking into next season or all of the trades and stuff like that. We’re focused still on this season. We have a lot more games to go and we have a lot more things to accomplish this season. We’re still focused in, and we still have the same goal as we had before the season. We just need to fix a few things and I feel like we’ll be back on track.”
The Vikings have committed an NFL-high nine turnovers while losing all three games by one score. Their total point differential this season (minus-13) is better than that of 11 NFL teams, including two — the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders — that have 2-1 records.
But the state of their “competitive rebuild” under general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has prompted public discussion about the futures of several key players. The possibility of trading quarterback Kirk Cousins, whose contract will automatically void in March, has been a frequent topic of conversation on ESPN’s “Get Up,” among other shows. Cousins has a full no-trade clause, however.
Linebacker Danielle Hunter is also in the final year of his contract. On social media, some fans have even suggested trading Jefferson — whom the Vikings have not yet signed to an extension of his rookie contract — to accumulate more draft picks.
Jefferson said he has seen trade talk on the social platform X but added: “It’s just really being confined to ourselves, knowing who is in this building and what we’re trying to accomplish. And I feel like that’s all that really matters.”