Minnesota Vikings News & Rumors

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.

Justin Jefferson is one of several high-profile players currently absent from OTAs in the NFL. Missing out on voluntary workouts, the 2023 Offensive Player of the Year is in talks with the Vikings on a monster extension.

Jefferson is a strong candidate to become the league’s top earner at the receiver position. Given his age (24) and the historic start to his career, however, that may not be the bar he is aiming for. Outkick’s Armando Salguero reports Jefferson is “expecting” to surpass Nick Bosa as the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback.

Bosa’s 49ers deal, signed last offseason, carries an AAV of $34MM. That figure comfortably moved him to the top of the pecking order amongst defenders (although Chris Jones is now not far behind) and it surpassed the top of the receiver market at the time. Tyreek Hill‘s $30MM-per-season Dolphins contract has been eclipsed recently by new deals for Amon-Ra St. Brown (Lions) and A.J. Brown (Eagles).

The latter pact is worth an average of $32MM per season, and it therefore represents the new target for Jefferson and other extension-eligible wideouts. Salguero notes Jefferson has already turned down one offer which would have allowed him to top the receiver market, but that was before Brown’s deal was signed. Talks with the Vikings nearly produced an agreement last offseason, but instead the LSU alum remains on track for free agency next year as things stand. Jefferson is set to earn $19.74MM in 2024 on his fifth-year option.

A multi-year pact will check in at a much larger rate, although particular figures regarding AAV are not known at this point in negotiations. Salguero adds the three-time Pro Bowler was previously seeking $40MM annually, but that may no longer be the case. That figure matches the AAV of the contracts quarterbacks Daniel Jones, Matthew Stafford and Dak Prescott are presently attached to.

With respect to guaranteed compensation, Salguero reports Jefferson is aiming for roughly $100MM on his next deal. Only eight contracts in the league are at that mark in terms of total guarantees; all of them, unsurprisingly, belong to quarterbacks. It will be interesting to see if Jefferson manages to reach (or at least approach) his asking price in terms of total and guaranteed money.

Minnesota has a cost-effective quarterback room with Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy positioned to replace Kirk Cousins in the short and long term. The team’s skill position group features one expensive pact (tight end T.J. Hockenson), but wideout Jordan Addison will be attached to his rookie contract for at least the next three years. An expensive new deal for left tackle Christian Darrisaw will likely be on the Vikings’ books down the road, but it will pale in comparison to the one Jefferson will have if talks can produce a market-topping agreement.

CeeDee Lamb has elected to stay away from the Cowboys in the absence of a long-term extension being worked out. The same remains true in the case of Justin Jefferson, another wideout looking to approach or reach the top of his position’s market.

Jefferson is absent from the Vikings as their organized team activities begin, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. The 2022 Offensive Player of the Year also skipped out on the beginning of Minnesota’s offseason program last month, so today’s update does not represent a surprise. Jefferson’s decision comes as extension talks are ongoing.

General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said earlier this offseason that the sides came close to an agreement last year. Negotiations were ultimately put on hold, though, and they briefly resumed resumed after the close of the 2023 campaign. With attention turning to the draft, the team temporarily pressed pause for a time, but the focus is once again on hammering out a lucrative pact.

Jefferson had the most productive three-year start to a career in NFL history, giving him a strong case to sign the league’s most valuable receiver pact. The 24-year-old was limited to 10 games in 2024 due to a hamstring injury, though he still managed to post a 68-1,074-5 statline. Kirk Cousins is no longer Minnesota’s quarterback, with Sam Darnold in place as a bridge option and first-rounder J.J. McCarthy positioned to take over as a starter down the road.

Both of those signal-callers carry plenty of question marks relative to Cousins, but Jefferson will still be counted on to produce among the league’s top playmakers moving forward. The three-time Pro Bowler is due $19.74MM in 2024 as he is set to play out his fifth-year option. A franchise tag could be an option for the following year, but a multi-year investment at a much larger rate remains a matter of mutual interest.

Tyreek Hill‘s $30MM-per-year Dolphins pact has been surpassed as the top receiver deal in terms of annual compensation. Both Amon-Ra St. Brown (Lions) and A.J. Brown (Eagles) have eclipsed that figure on mega-pacts of their own, with the latter’s checking in at $32MM per season with $51MM fully guaranteed at signing. Jefferson, along with Lamb and Bengals standout Ja’Marr Chase, is in line to parlay his production into a similar contract. It will be interesting to see if traction is gained between he and the Vikings in the near future.