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A day after the Minnesota Vikings placed Justin Jefferson on the injured reserve list, the star wide receiver’s injury status came into question after he was seen jogging at the team facilities.
On Thursday, October 12, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert noted that Jefferson “jogged through the Vikings locker room” while ailing with a hamstring strain.
“And his jog is my sprint,” Seifert added. “Looked pretty spry. Thus ends my rehab coverage for the day.”
Seifert’s report caught fire on X (formerly Twitter) as fans and pundits speculated the severity of Jefferson’s injury and reasoning behind the IR placement.
NFL World Reacts to Justin Jefferson Jogging With Injury
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GettyJustin Jefferson
Immediately after Seifert’s post went live, fans were upset that the injured reserve placement was a hasty decision considering Jefferson cannot return to the active roster until Week 11 at the earliest and is jogging faster than a Seifert sprint.
Jefferson is widely praised as an ultra-competitor and team player.
Kevin O’Connell said in the days leading up to Jefferson’s placement on the injured reserve list that protecting Jefferson from himself, allowing him to play through the injury, was one of the considerations during his evaluation period.
Some fans saw the decision as a business move to protect Jefferson’s long-term health and a means of tanking with the Vikings sitting with a 1-4 record.
“Doesn’t make me feel any better about him playing,” one fan replied. “Feels like it was a business decision on both sides to put him on IR.”
“Of course JJ is a superhuman like all other NFL superstars but jogging on a hamstring that’s only like 2 days into treatment would suggest this is at worse a bad grade 1 hamstring injury. 2-4 weeks to recover usually. 8-10 for a mega star who’s playoff chances are slim to none (this season),” another fan posted.
Some fans acknowledged that without knowing all of the details of Jefferson’s injury, any social media injury diagnoses carry the same credibility as an armchair quarterback.
ESPN’s Stephania Bell, a licensed physical therapist and injury analyst, reacting to the stir that Seifert’s Day 1 update of Jefferson’s rehab created, acknowledged the rabid appetite for new information in the coming days.
But whether Jefferson is much closer to playing form or needs at least four weeks to fully mend, Vikings fans can rally around Viktor the Viking’s sentiment:
“Is science advanced enough for me to be able to donate a hamstring?”
Kirk Cousins Addresses Vikings’ Plans Without Justin Jefferson
While fantasy football analysts would love to sell the idea of Jefferson’s workload and role changing places to one target, there is no replacing the Jefferson role.
The Vikings are preparing to attack defense by not tipping their hat to any single target. The burden will be on Kirk Cousins to work through his reads without having a contested catch cheat code like Jefferson on the field.
“[W]e still have our system, and we’ve still gotta run our system,” Cousins said in a Wednesday news conference. “That probably doesn’t change. But I think it’ll be a lot of other people who can contribute. It probably wouldn’t be the focus on Justin as much as using all five eligibles.”
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