NFL rumors: Vikings planning for the most obvious extension ever

The Vikings want to secure star wideout Justin Jefferson for the long haul because of course they do. What sane franchise wouldn’t?

“The Minnesota Vikings value Justin Jefferson” is one of the biggest understatements of the year. They don’t just value him — they worship the guy.

The 2022 Offensive Player of the Year led the league last season with 128 catches for 1,809 yards, marking the sixth-highest yardage total in a single season in NFL history. Jefferson has broken his share of crazy feats, and the craziest just might be his one-handed snag against the Buffalo Bills in a regular season thriller that puts all other acrobatic catches in history to shame.

Other Vikings players have their fatal flaws: quarterback Kirk Cousins, for instance, is rendered powerless by his kryptonite, primetime TV. Cousins should be considered the sidekick to the real superhero that is Justin Jefferson, and Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah simply could not stop praising Jefferson in a presser on Tuesday.

Adofo-Mensah called extending Jefferson a “high priority” and that he didn’t want to manage the Vikings were it not for the star wideout.

Vikings extending Justin Jefferson should be on everyone’s offseason bingo card

Every team’s general manager took notice of last offseason’s series of blockbuster trades that saw Davante Adams join the Las Vegas Raiders and Tyreek Hill head to the Miami Dolphins, among other acquisitions.

Franchises suddenly felt a need to hold onto their star players a little more tightly for fear an enticing offer would lead them astray. The Vikings don’t have much to worry about with Jefferson who had a pretty nonchalant response to the possibility of a new contract earlier this year, saying that “if it comes, it comes…It’s not really something that I’m really worried about or I have my mind set on.”

If anything, Jefferson is keeping a side eye on Minnesota, who took a risky gamble in 2020 by trading Stefon Diggs to the Buffalo Bills. They offloaded a star receiver once before, yet Adofo-Mensah’s toe-kissing flattery to Jefferson would suggest the Vikings won’t do it again.

Jefferson is set to be a free agent in 2025 and signaled in January that he would be open to inking a long-term deal. As Jefferson said himself, “if it comes, it comes.” The future is in Minnesota’s hands now.