EAGAN — They call it a “gotta have it” play.
Game on the line. Need somebody to step up. Now or never.
Last Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Sam Darnold got a taste of what Mr. Gotta-Have-It Justin Jefferson can do in the most important spots.
With 4:08 remaining and the Vikings trying to run the clock out on the Packers, Darnold was faced with third-and-12. Convert and the game essentially ends. Gotta have it.
He dropped back and fired a pass toward the sideline. Jefferson did a Superman dive at full speed, caught the ball, toe-tapped, survived the ground and converted a massive first down. Even the referees didn’t believe their eyes. The play had to be challenged to reveal that he actually caught it.
The Vikings ultimately didn’t score on the drive but drained another two minutes off the clock, giving Green Bay no time to score twice.
After the game, Darnold called it one of the best catches he’d ever seen. Head coach Kevin O’Connell said he had never seen someone cover that much ground on a six-step speed out.
When it comes to great wide receivers making spectacular catches, we tend to assume that the explanation is simply within their DNA. They either hit the gene pool lottery or were bit by a radioactive spider. Jefferson is The Chosen One. He can see The Matrix. The ball moves in slow motion to him and we are all just witnesses to the freakshow.
OK some of that is true. Jefferson’s family is filled with great athletes and biometric data actually showed that he can see things you and everyone you’ve ever met cannot. But just like with musical geniuses, the focus on God-given gifts often overshadows the hours that go into a reception like that.
So what does Jefferson do in practice to make those catches happen?
He says that he tries to recreate the sideline reception that he made in the gotta-have-it moment over and over. Like a basketball player counting down, “3…2…1…buzzzzzz.”
“It's really hard to practice those exact catches to where you're actually falling… those are the ones that are hard to practice but you can get close to that vicinity of leaning towards the sideline, knowing where you're at on the sideline, knowing the foot placement, and how to drag your foot,” Jefferson explained. “And all of that just comes with repetition, just doing it over and over again. I mean, we work that drill every single day and during the game days while we're warming up. Those catches are difficult for sure, but those are the ones that separate yourself from the good and the great.”
When Darnold arrived in Minnesota, he didn’t get a chance right away to throw to Jefferson in practice as the team was still putting the finishing touches on a new contract that made him the highest paid receiver in football. When Jefferson arrived at minicamp, one of Darnold’s first throws in his direction was snatched out of the air with one hand. Darnold noticed that at practice Jefferson is never without a football in his hands.
“Whether it's before practice after practice at walkthrough, he’s always playing catch, he's always just doing everything he can to make himself better that way,” Darnold said. I'm sure he's doing the same thing in the off season. So, he's always practicing those types of catches…he's been making those catches ever since I've been playing with him since mandatory minicamps. For him to be able to make that catch in a crucial moment like that in the game was obviously huge for us.”
There is an old saying, “practice how you play.” Well, that’s impossible in football, otherwise players would get injured constantly and nobody would have any energy left by the time Sunday came around. Running back Aaron Jones said that a player like Jefferson is able to put himself in the same mindset during practice that he will have when the football is really coming his way in the game, even if he’s not doing it at the same exact level of intensity.
“He puts himself in the game in practice,” Jones explained. “So when he is in those situations in the game, it's easy. He's been there before his mind's been there. His body, he's made those catches and that's why he may say, ‘Oh yeah, that was an easy catch,’ or something like that, and you're like, well, that wasn't an easy catch (laughs). It's routine to him, because that's really how he practices, and that's what he does on a daily basis.”
The thing about Jefferson is that he loves practice. During his contract negotiations in 2023, he practiced every day unlike some other stars who were working toward deals. Earlier this year in training camp, Jefferson was force to take a rest day because of the amount of milage that he had put on his body during the previous practices. The team was strategically aiming to keep him healthy over 17 games, which he understood, but he was not pleased.
“I never really was the type of person to take days off,” Jefferson said.
Another old saying from coaches is that you’d rather say “whoa” than “go.” Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said that it’s usually the case that players of Jefferson’s caliber can’t help themselves from trying to be top dog during practice time.
“The great players that I've ever been around on either side of the ball, when they step on the grass they're hyper competitive, almost too competitive at times,” Phillips said. “Aaron Donald was that way, some of the guys that have been around that are Hall of Fame type players [are that way]. Every day he comes out, he wants to win. He wants to win every rep that he takes, and he takes it personal if he doesn't. So he's really a special player.”
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said that receivers coach Keenan McCardell works with his players every Friday on the sideline catches as part of their scramble drill, so the hope is that Jefferson isn’t the only one preparing himself to make those types of catches. But there’s an organizational importance to his practice. The culture can only be as good as its best player.
“Justin's [Jefferson] a guy, like when we've talked about his work ethic and how he treats every day as a chance to get better, those are some of the things he's working on… Justin [Jefferson] is a prime example of the best at his position in football, working on his craft on a daily basis, setting the tone for all of us,” O’Connell said.
Of course, the defensive players don’t always have the most fun when Jefferson is pushing himself in practice.
“Sometimes at practice I just get frustrated, like, ‘Man, I’m playing defense but he’s catching everything,’” cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. said.
Though he does get tired of Jefferson doing impossible things against him during practice, Murphy Jr. did acknowledge that working against Jefferson helps him train for the best of the best.
“He’s a receiver that’s going to get you better at practice and then on Sundays it shows because when I’m going against this guy [in practice] then Sundays should be a little bit easier,” Murphy Jr. said. “He makes those catches, we see that every day and and it’s like, ‘Oh my god.’ He’s making the craziest catches. Defense can be right next to him and he’s still going to catch it. Guarding him is getting me better.”
Veteran cornerback Stephon Gilmore said it isn’t just the spectacular catches. He pointed toward Jefferson’s effort to make all of his routes look the same that was so difficult about facing off with him.
“He’s more smooth, you can’t figure out what he’s doing in his routes, that’s the main thing,” Gilmore said. “Some guys are fast, he’s fast and smooth. That makes it hard…and you can just tell that he loves the game.”
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores noted that putting in the work in other areas beside just catching the ball is a big deal for Jefferson, who constantly faces double teams and coverages shifting to his side.
“This doesn't happen by chance at all… [he’s] talking to [McCardell] about disguises and coverage structures and where to open spaces and how to get to that space and releases,” Flores said.
Multiple people went out of their way to mention that last week Jefferson laid a block on the outside for Jordan Addison to score a touchdown on a reverse. It wasn’t a gotta-have-it catch but it was a gotta-have-it block, otherwise he would have been taken down for a loss.
“I know we see all the highlight plays, but he does all the little things too,” Flores siad. “I know it goes unnoticed, but it doesn't go unnoticed to the people in this building. He is who he is for a reason.”
