Justin Jefferson is the Heart and Soul of the Minnesota Vikings. He’s Also the Best Receiver in Football.

Justin Jefferson led the Vikings win over the Browns and in doing so, demonstrated once again that he's matured into his role as a team leader. Oh yea, and that he's the best WR in the world.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

“We couldn’t go home on that plane 0-2”

Justin Jefferson wasn’t going to let the Minnesota Vikings come home from their two-week European trip winless.

Even though he failed to reach the end zone, Jefferson was clearly the Vikings’ best offensive player in the 21-17 win over the Cleveland Browns, ending the game with 7 catches for 123 yards, more than half of Carson Wentz’s 236 passing yards.

Jefferson played a big role in each scoring drive. He converted a 3rd and 7 and gained 25 total yards on the team’s first TD drive, drew a DPI and caught another pass for 21 yards on the second, and made a spectacular jumping catch for 21 yards on the final drive that put the Vikings in scoring range and forced the Browns to start using their timeouts.

Injuries have mounted during the early part of the season. It’s worth noting that the Vikings were without their intended starting QB, RB, LG, C, RT, replacement C … and LT Christian Darrisaw left this game on after surpassing his pitch count as he continued to recover from last year’s injury. If you’re counting, that’s 6 — or more than half of the 11 players you can put on the field at a time — players missing from the game.

For a team, these are the circumstances where you rely on team leaders to step up and take control. For the Vikings, that leader is Jefferson, the highest-paid player on the team and one of the faces of the NFL. He’s clearly embraced the role.

A Leader On the Field and Beyond

You do not need to be familiar with this tweet to know the reputation receivers have across the NFL, but Denny Carter sums it up perfectly:

You can conjure up a seemingly endless number of what could be called “diva” behavior from the game’s best receivers, from Terrell Owens doing situps in his driveway, to whatever Antonio Brown and Tyreek Hill are up to, to the constant tension AJ Brown seems to have with the Eagles despite the team’s success.

Vikings fans are no strangers to that behavior, from Randy Moss’ caterer incident, to Percy Harvin reportedly throwing a weight at Brad Childress, to Stefon Diggs’ “truth to all rumors” quote.

Jefferson appears to be wired differently. Even during contract negotiations, Jefferson never skipped mandatory practices and secured his extension in a seemingly very amicable negotiation, despite how some people may have tried to paint it. Fellow LSU WR Ja’Marr Chase later held out all of training camp while seeking a new deal.

That’s not to criticize Chase — I fully support players using the leverage they have available to get as much money as they can playing a brutal sport, and the Bengals are notoriously cheap — but rather to highlight the lack of negative buzz of any kind around Jefferson.

It’s clear that as a leader, Jefferson sets the standard for the Vikings. Head coach Kevin O’Connell has consistently praised his leadership. When asked about managing the team’s emotions after the comeback win against the Bears, O’Connell said, “It’s not just [J.J. McCarthy], it’s our whole team. One of the people I was most proud of on Monday Night was Justin Jefferson.” He added, “This is a guy who expects to go out there and make a play every single play… I just felt like throughout the whole game, it was about poise.”

O’Connell continued to praise Jefferson’s leadership in an interview with Sky Sports as the Vikings prepared to play in Ireland:

“He’s such a pro’s pro and understands that big picture. He also understands how his presence might get opportunities for other people… Justin gets all that”

Jefferson demonstrated his leadership through his words in his press conference after the win against the Browns. When asked about Jordan Addison, who was disciplined in the first quarter of the game for reportedly missing a team walkthrough, he took responsibility:

“I definitely had my words with [Jordan Addison], but it’s all about growing up and, you know, being a part of the team, knowing the stakes, and knowing that he’s a valuable part of this team… I’ve just got to do better, keeping him under my wing and making sure that he has his head on straight.”

When you listen to Jefferson talk about the game, the energy is infectious. Football camp highlights on Twitter can often show some of the worst of football, with bad technique dominating the platform. See a camp video with Jefferson speaking, however, and you get intense, actionable advice.

In this video, Jefferson talks about the importance of route timing and executing efficient breaks over straight line speed as a receiver. Here, he walks a young receiver through the thought process of how to release against different CB leverages.

Jefferson’s advice has a strong mechanical focus, and his teachings are textbook. His emphasis on limiting upper-body fakes but making sudden movements in this video and this video sounds like they’re something straight out of a Jay Norvell book.

Put another way, Jefferson is a nerd about football. His conviction, which flummoxed the reporter in this video, felt almost like someone (definitely not the founder of Wide Left, as he has repeatedly noted) excitedly explaining their favorite anime to someone who is not familiar with the genre.

I believe that single-minded obsession is the driving force behind Jefferson’s success. Vikings fans are fortunate to see the results week in and week out. Let’s take a look at how Jefferson applies that technique to the field.

Applying the Technique: Movement Skills

Jefferson puts his advice into practice in the play below with how he executes his break. This is a stack release behind Nailor and Jefferson gains some width while keeping his body moving forward and his arms and legs pumping hard before the break.

Then, at the break point, he demonstrates the snapping motion with his arms shown in the video above, which helps force his hips outward, helping him make a quick cut and creating significant separation from the CB, Myles Harden.

Once he gets open, he’s not done. He gets his head around and looks the ball in, getting his hands up and catching it away from his frame. He’s even able to turn upfield before reaching the sideline and gain about 5 yards after the catch.