Latest Justin Jefferson Injury Update Is a Bit Concerning
Just because Justin Jefferson is in line to play on Monday Night Football next week doesn’t mean the man’s hamstring is 100%.
The latest injury update on Vikings WR Justin Jefferson is a bit concerning, leaving folks a little anxious about his long-term health.
That’s the word this week from the Star Tribune, with the regular season just five days away.
Worrying about Jefferson’s hamstring may morph into a 2025 storyline for the purple team.
Latest Injury Update for Justin Jefferson Raises Questions
Jefferson’s hamstring recovery isn’t cut and dried.
Justin Jefferson’s Hamstring Issue Isn’t Wholly Resolved
According to Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling, Jefferson’s hamstring maintenance isn’t over. It’s not a summer thing that has passed.
“I think this is going to be a long-term maintenance thing. He’s had enough hamstring stuff at this point that I would not be surprised — he practices hard and he does not like to miss practices — I wonder if they will mitigate any of that,” Goessling said on KFAN this week.
“If there are weeks coming up where you see that he was limited in a practice and he shows up (on the injury report) with a hamstring, I don’t know that that will mean that there’s anything new. I don’t know that that’s going to happen. Just kind of putting pieces together, it wouldn’t shock me if there are weeks where they say, ‘Hey, we gotta pull this back’ just a little for maintenance perspective because you don’t want those things to become regular issues.”
Some onlookers had operated under the pretense that Jefferson was “good to go.”
Goessling continued, “We’re going to see him continue to get stretched out, I imagine. There will be a lot of practices where during the brief open period for the media it’ll be, ‘OK, where is he?’ — and he’s inside getting stretched out or he may be outside in the side tent doing those things.”
“I would expect this is something they continue to keep a pretty close eye on because hamstrings seem like they are a consistent enough issue for him at this point that I think they’re going to treat it with quite a bit of attention.”
So … Hope for the Best?
What does this mean? Simple — until an unknown date, Vikings faithful will monitor Jefferson’s performance and status while hoping for the best.
He’s not on track to miss any games — he’ll play almost for sure against the Chicago Bears — and the situation will become a waiting game, where no news is good news.
Thankfully, the injury occurred in late July, so the phenom playmaker has had over five weeks to take it easy.
The 2023 Injury
Hamstring ailments aren’t new for Jefferson.
He suffered a hamstring injury in 2023, three weeks before Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles and subsequently ended his career in purple. Jefferson missed seven games altogether that season — the Joshua Dobbs year — and famously registered over 1,000 yards (1,074) in a ten-game sample.
Jefferson should be rather familiar with the hamstring recovery process. It’s apparently his kryptonite.
The Rest of the Vikings’ WR Crew
To be clear: Jefferson will probably be fine, and this development will vanish by midseason or so.
Still, Minnesota recently traded for Adam Thielen from the Carolina Panthers and has Jalen Nailor and Tai Felton hungry for wide receiver targets. T.J. Hockenson, the club’s TE1, also has a full offseason and summer under his belt for the first time in two years, and the 28-year-old has the capability of turning into a target hog.
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who will make his first career start on Monday night, won’t have WR2 Jordan Addison. A three-game suspension awaits Addison, and he’s on deck to return in Week 4 in Ireland against Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Thielen trade feels more vital than ever.
SI.com’s Take on Jefferson
Joe Nelson of SI.com weighed in on the Jefferson hamstring topic Tuesday: “Jefferson missed seven games during the 2023 season with a strained hamstring. At the time, Jefferson noted that it was the first injury of this life to knock him out of action for a long stretch.”
“The hamstring injury he sustained in late July kept him off the practice field for about three weeks, and he’s been increasing his workload ever since, though he did not participate in any preseason games, nor the two joint practices in mid-August against the New England Patriots.”
It’s worth noting that Minnesota oddly began winning games the moment Jefferson hit the shelf in 2023.
“The Sept. 8 opener at Soldier Field will be his first game action since the Vikings were knocked out of the playoffs last January by the Los Angeles Rams. One thing to keep an eye on will be Soldier Field’s sod, which is being laid this week after five back-to-back concerts were held at the stadium over the weekend,” Nelson added.
“Last year, before the Bears hosted the Bengals in a preseason game following concerts, the grass surface was heavily criticized. For Jefferson’s sake, solid footing will be extremely important every time he takes the field — but especially in Week 1 and a recent hamstring injury.”
Overall, it seems Vikings fans have to merely cross their fingers on Jefferson’s hamstring in 2025, at least during the first couple of months of the season.
You must be logged in to post a comment.