Justin Jefferson

During the off-season, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson was asked in an interview with Complex.com who was the best receiver in the game.

Could Jefferson become the first wide receiver to win MVP? On this deep post route, Jefferson gets past both safeties for the big play: Jefferson comes in motion across the formation right before the snap, and releases to the flat. Jefferson hauled in 9 passes for 184 yards and a pair of touchdowns, leading Minnesota to the Week 1 victory. But it was what Jefferson did against the Packers that has many talking right now. The [LSU](https://www.andthevalleyshook.com) product did not hesitate in response, declaring that Davante Adams was the choice.

Jefferson had arguably the best game of his career in the Vikings' 2022 season opener against the Packers. The third-year receiver recorded a career-high 184 ...

"When I caught the ball, I was definitely looking for someone to be there," Jefferson said of his second touchdown of the day. "I was thinking somebody was about to come from behind and tackle me. The decision not to have Alexander shadow Jefferson was a strange one. That meant Alexander wasn't always on Jefferson, which was far from his preferred choice, as he detailed to Coach Matt LaFleur and defensive coordinator Joe Barry will surely look for a way to play better coverage against the talented receiver. "I definitely like the motioning, and just seeing the whole field," Jefferson said. Still, LaFleur and Barry need to put tougher coverage on Jefferson. However, as the veteran corner explained, the matchups the Packers threw Jefferson's way were not his call. In particular, he was focused on the pre-snap movement baked into O'Connell's scheme. It's not a surprise that O'Connell's offense contains within it plenty of pre-snap motion. "Why I wasn’t on him, that’s not my call. The third-year receiver recorded a career-high 184 receiving yards on nine catches and scored twice in Minnesota's 23-7 win over its divisional rival.

One of the things that head coach Kevin O'Connell is great at is finding and exploiting matchups. He did just that for Justin Jefferson.

With O’Connell’s creativity, this should the expectation moving forward. The key to his scheme is “the illusion of complexity” as he tries to maximize matchups for his [23-7 win](https://vikingswire.usatoday.com/2022/09/11/instant-analysis-of-vikings-23-7-week-1-win-over-the-packers/) in [his coaching debut](https://vikingswire.usatoday.com/2022/09/11/kevin-oconnell-wins-debut/), but his scheme is already paying massive dividends.

Jefferson went for 184 yards and two touchdowns against the Packers in Week 1 of his third season with the Vikings.

That’s an average of 94.1 per game in his career. Jefferson put up 1,400 yards in his rookie year and 1,616 in his sophomore campaign. Expectations were high for the first-round pick, but he’s exceeded them.