While the 2022 offseason featured a boom in the wide receiver market, it did not feature as many changeovers regarding the position’s highest salary as 2024 has brought. The top wideout salary benchmark has now moved three times since late April.
The Vikings are responsible for the biggest AAV vault at the position since the Cardinals’ DeAndre Hopkins payday in 2020, giving Justin Jefferson a four-year, $140MM extension that comes with a whopping $110MM guaranteed at $88.7M locked in at signing. In addition to the $35MM AAV being $3MM north of the closest WR’s number, Jefferson’s guarantees are on their own tier as well. The fifth-year Viking’s full guarantee number is $26MM higher than any other receiver’s; his $88.7MM full guarantee is a staggering $36MM higher than Tyreek Hill‘s previous market-topping figure. Like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jaylen Waddle‘s recent deals, Jefferson will be protected on the guarantee front via year-out vesting.
The Vikes guaranteed $17.99MM of Jefferson’s 2026 base salary ($24.99MM) at signing; already guaranteed for injury, the other $7MM will become fully guaranteed in March 2025, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio notes. Jefferson will be due a $29.25MM base salary in 2027. A $14.26MM injury guarantee already covers the superstar wideout; that will shift to a full guarantee in March 2026. Jefferson’s 2028 base salary ($33.24MM) is nonguaranteed.
Despite the ’28 base being nonguaranteed, Jefferson’s camp did extraordinarily well on this contract — as the substantial leads on the guarantee front confirm. The two-time All-Pro did not need to agree to a lofty final-year figure to prop up the AAV, which was required for Hill and Davante Adams to eclipse Hopkins’ then-record salary in 2022. Hill is angling for an update to his through-2026 contract, one that includes a phony $43.9MM 2026 base salary that almost definitely will not be paid out.
The Vikings used a dual bonus structure (signing and option) in Jefferson’s contract, per OverTheCap, and included a void year (2029). Void years became a thorny issue for this Vikings regime, with both Dalvin Tomlinson and Kirk Cousins tagging the club with notable dead money hits (Cousins’ went to $28.5MM) due to void years. This void structure, however, would only bring a $6MM dead cap hit if Jefferson departed as a free agent in 2029. The Vikings will keep Jefferson cap hits below $16MM in 2024 and ’25, but his 2026 number shoots to $38.98MM.
Negotiations between the Vikings and Jefferson did not intensify until after the draft, Florio adds. Rumblings about Minnesota being interested in trading up to No. 5 for Malik Nabers emerged, though concrete details about that potential effort remain elusive. GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has been resolute on a Jefferson extension since early in the 2023 offseason; a trade/Nabers-centered reboot would have been borderline shocking.
The Vikings were connected to moving up for a quarterback, which they eventually did by trading from No. 11 to No. 10 (via the Jets). However, Minnesota had acquired an additional first-round pick from Houston (No. 23). This was viewed as a weapon in QB bidding, but with none of the passers beyond Drake Maye drawing extensive trade interest, the Vikings did not need to give up much to climb to No. 10 for J.J. McCarthy.
Minnesota attempted to acquire the No. 3 overall pick from New England, eyeing Maye. The Vikes’ proposal included their 2025 first-round pick, along with mid-round Pats picks going back to Minnesota in the swap. The Maye effort failing could have conceivably prompted the Vikings to try to acquire both Nabers and McCarthy, though that would have been a complex blueprint to complete. They soon focused on just the quarterback, eventually using the No. 23 pick to trade up for Dallas Turner at No. 17.
It would have been surprising but understandable had the Vikings entertained trade offers for Jefferson before and during the draft, given the price point here. The team traded Stefon Diggs in 2020 (and succeeded in replacing him with Jefferson) and unloaded both Percy Harvin (2013) and Randy Moss (2005). Jefferson far outproduced Diggs on his rookie contract, shattering Moss’ NFL record for receiving yardage through three seasons (4,825). The former LSU standout also surpassed 1,000 yards (1,074) last season despite missing seven games due to a hamstring injury.
Had the Vikings been serious about Jefferson trades, Florio adds multiple teams were prepared to offer multiple first-rounders. With Diggs, Hill, Adams and A.J. Brown drawing first-rounders and then other picks in deals earlier this decade, the Vikings certainly carried an interesting chip.
That said, a two-first-rounder offer actually emerging would have been fascinating. Hill, Diggs and Brown did not draw any Day 2 compensation in addition to the first-rounders in those deals. Adams fetched first- and second-rounders. Another team sending the Vikings two first-rounders and then giving Jefferson a record-smashing extension would have depleted resources on multiple fronts, though a star wideout going into his age-25 season is obviously valuable as well.
The Cowboys and Buccaneers traded two first-round picks for wideouts (Joey Galloway, Keyshawn Johnson), but both those blockbusters occurred back in 2000. No team has forked over two first-rounders for a wide receiver since. It would obviously be interesting to learn which current teams were considering a two-first-rounder offer for Jefferson.
Rather than move Jefferson to avoid new financial territory at wide receiver, Minnesota will pair this lucrative contract with McCarthy’s rookie deal, which he must remain tied to through at least 2026. Players like CeeDee Lamb and Ja’Marr Chase will certainly attempt to use Jefferson’s deal as a springboard, and it will be worth monitoring to see how teams navigate big-ticket WR extensions following this monster Minnesota agreement. Even if Lamb and Chase do not eclipse the Jefferson numbers, the Vikings’ deal will impact those respective talks.
I’ve been coming back to this thought ever since the AJ Brown trade, but if other teams are valuing your player at the contract he wants PLUS major draft capital to acquire the right to give him that contract, then you should probably reconsider balking at just paying the contract.
Maybe Oooof, but also sometimes the Broncos are just willing to trade you their future and pay Russell Wilson and essentially offer to fund your next run. You should let that team do that for you.
Well that’s true, but I also think teams are more prone to panic overpaying for quarterbacks than other positions.
As great as JJ is, using that many assets on a receiver is a fool’s errand. Skill positions are the most easily filled on the field. Yes, he raises the ceiling of your team, but if you don’t have a good offensive line to block for you, a good QB, or a good defense to stop the other team, you can’t win games even if you had prime Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, JJ, Marvin Harrison, Marshall Faulk, Walter Payton, and Jim Thorpe all on your team. Just look at the Chiefs, what WRs did they have??? They had a 7th round running back starting. A good QB with time to throw can throw a UDFA open, I mean look at Lazard when he was with the Packers, dude is a total waste with Zach Wilson throwing to him last year.
Trading two firsts (ideally two starters) plus a quarter of your cap on a WR is how you don’t win in the NFL.
The Vikings already have two good offensive tackles and a cheap quarterback plan and Jefferson’s contract isn’t nearly a quarter of the cap, not even close to a fifth. And while receivers are easy enough to find, number ones aren’t. Lazard was fine in Green Bay, but he was never their top target and they were hurting for better.
This isn’t about the Vikings…this is about teams willing to trade two first round picks AND make him the highest-paid non-QB in NFL history
Like I said above, if another team is willing to trade a first round pick or more in order to give your player a huge contract, that might be a sign that just giving the player the contract is a good value. It’s not like this contract has stopped them from even playing in free agency this year, and they still have a lot of space next year.
The intricate financial subtleties of these record breaking contracts are quite impressive but they sometimes give me a headache. Fortunately I’ve been able to set aside an hour each afternoon to go couch diving for loose change as a means of finding a diversion.
Florio’s been beating the trade drum so he had to say they were offered 2 first round picks for Jefferson. Florio’s wrong again. Please quite quoting him.
Mike Florio: “Wrong? Wrong?….I’m never wrong! but sometimes the antenna on my tin foil hat get bad signals due to atmospheric interference”.
Florio’s never wrong, he’s just given bad intel.
You can pretty much expect the intel to be bad when the source insists on staying anonymous.
Florio is just a salty Vikings fan. Pay him no mind.