The hamstring injury Justin Jefferson suffered in Week 5 will sideline him for an extended stretch. The Vikings wideout will be placed on injured reserve, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports.

As a result of the move, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year will be shut down for at least the next four weeks. The Vikings will use the IR designation to ensure Jefferson has a sufficient period to heal in full and avoid a rushed recovery which could lead to a setback. Still, the news marks a crippling blow to the 1-4 team’s offense and overall prospects for the season.

“We’re going to have to medically make a good decision and help almost protect him from himself a little bit in a way where we’ve got to take care of him and get him back to 100 percent,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said, via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, when asked about Jefferson’s prognosis and how the team would proceed with his recovery.

The 24-year-old, as expected, has had a highly productive start to the 2023 season. Jefferson currently ranks seventh in the NFL in catches (36) and third in yards (571) through five contests. He will now be sidelined for the first time in his career, after availability during his first three seasons helped him break the all-time record for the most receiving yards during that opening stretch of a player’s pro tenure. Replacing the LSU product will be a notable challenge for Minnesota.

Jefferson has drawn the fourth-most targets in the league (53), and O’Connell admitted the team’s offense is founded in very large part on the former first-rounder. With Jefferson no longer in the picture for the time being, the workload for first-round rookie Jordan Addison and former fifth-rounder K.J. Osborn will increase. The former has posted a 19-243-3 statline so far despite seeing the field for only 67% of offensive snaps. An uptick in playing time should yield a continuation of his encouraging start in the NFL. Of course, recently-extended tight end T.J. Hockenson will also be in line to see more targets in his first full campaign in Minnesota.

The Vikings have expressed confidence in their ability to rebound from an 0-3 start, making it clear that a seller’s status ahead of the October 31 trade deadline was not in the cards. As a result, consideration has not been given to finding a deal for quarterback Kirk Cousins to be sent elsewhere (something which would require the 35-year-old, who is in the final year of his contract, waiving his no-trade clause). It will be interesting to see if that mindset changes as the team now faces a stretch of three out of four games on the road – the lone exception being against the 5-0 49ers.

For Jefferson, an extended layoff could have an effect on his bargaining position in the offseason. He and the Vikings held extension talks in the offseason, but a deal – one which will likely make him the league’s highest-paid receiver – could not be finalized. Negotiations are now on hold until the spring, and having a signficant injury on his resume could hurt Jefferson’s leverage to a degree. The 2025 fifth-year option is in place for him, in any event, and his historic production when on the field will no doubt still land him a massive second contract. For the time being, though, he will be absent as the Vikings look to find a new recipe for offensive production.

A push was made by the Vikings to work out an extension with Justin Jefferson, but they have come up short. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year will play the 2023 season without a new deal in place, reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Schefter adds that both the Vikings and the All-Pro wideout made an effort to reach agreement on a mega-contract in time for tomorrow’s season opener, but nothing is expected to be signed in the next few hours. As a result, the parties will press pause on negotiations until after the campaign is over. Jefferson will thus earn $2.39MM in salary this season in anticipation of a dramatic raise in the spring.

The 24-year-old was the subject of a late-summer push on Minnesota’s part to get a deal worked out in time for Week 1. That news followed a lengthy stretch without updates on the status of negotiations, and it confirmed the team’s willingness to make Jefferson a central part of their long-term plans. His personal preference was to have an agreement in place by Sunday, but he will now shift his attention to another hugely productive season in line with the three has had authored so far.

Jefferson comfortably holds the record for most receiving yards in the first three seasons of a player’s career (4,825), meaning his second contract will be enormous. The matter of injury guarantees (and their scheduling within the pact) were mentioned earlier this offseason as a potential issue, but it is unclear at this point what caused the failure for a deal to be reached.

Minnesota’s financial outlook looks much different moving forward after an offseason filled with a number of veteran departures. Jefferson is part of a young core the team will look to invest in – as it did recently with the extension for tight end T.J. Hockenson. Plenty of questions regarding the Vikings’ spending power in 2024 and beyond will be answered when clarity emerges regarding quarterback Kirk Cousins‘ future. The latter is set to hit free agency after the season, and Minnesota does not have a long-term successor in place at the moment.

Waiting until the conclusion of Year 4 to sign a new pact can be a risky proposition for players, but those at the top of their positional markets can ensure a major payday while remaining successful from an individual and team perspective. Nick Bosa‘s record-breaking deal for defensive players was signed just before his fifth season began, providing an example of patience (and in Bosa’s case, a training camp holdout) paying off. The lengths Jefferson will go to next spring if negotiations hit a snag upon resumption will make his situation worth watching closely.

After weeks of silence on this front, the Vikings are indeed trying to extend Justin Jefferson before the start of this season. The star receiver became extension-eligible in January and, if not extended within the next three days, would enter Week 1 as the NFL’s 65th-highest-paid wideout.

Jefferson confirmed contract talks are ongoing, indicating (via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert) he would prefer to have an extension done before the season. Extension talks could presumably continue into the season, though Jefferson stopped short of guaranteeing that would happen. The 2020 first-round pick is tied to a $2.39MM base salary.

The Vikings have Jefferson signed through 2024, after exercising his $19.74MM fifth-year option. Since teams could begin exercising options back in 2014 — three years after they were introduced in the 2011 CBA — no club has extended a first-round wideout with more than a year of control remaining. History would suggest Jefferson’s extension comes next year, and a previous report pointed to that timeline being a team preference. As we head toward Week 1, however, the Vikings are working hard to hammer out a deal and keep Jefferson happy, Jeff Howe of The Athletic notes (subscription required).

“I don’t think it’s the most important thing,” Jefferson said of his contract, via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Mark Craig. “But it is what it is at the end of the day. My agent and the Vikings are having conversations about that. My job is to play football. Have a smile on my face every day. Have the work ethic I have every single day and lead this team because I want to be a role model and a person people look up to, especially on this team. I know the better I play, the more money I get.”

Shattering Randy Moss‘ NFL standard for the most receiving yards through three seasons, getting to 4,825 last season, Jefferson is a mortal lock to become the NFL’s highest-paid receiver. Questions will pertain to contract structure and how much of a salary gap will exist between Jefferson and the field. Tyreek Hill‘s $30MM (featuring an inflated final year to create that AAV) leads the way among receivers. Jefferson would take a risk by playing a fourth season on his rookie contract, but he has never missed a game due to injury. Superstars like Aaron Donald and Nick Bosa also played out their fourth seasons before resetting positional markets ahead of Year 5.

Considering the complexities this contract could bring, it would not surprise if it was not completed by Sunday. The Vikings are not in danger of losing exclusive negotiating rights with Jefferson, as he is not eligible for free agency until 2025. The LSU alum also has virtually no chance of reaching the market at that point. If the Vikings do hammer out a Jefferson deal in the next few days, they would go into the season with the NFL’s highest-paid wideout and second-highest-paid tight end. T.J. Hockenson is now attached to a four-year, $66MM extension.

A regular topic early in the offseason, the prospect of a Justin Jefferson extension before his fourth season lost steam this summer. T.J. Hockenson, who is going into a contract year, appears to be staging a hold-in. But the Vikings have not given up on extending their best player early.

Via the fifth-year option, the Vikings have Jefferson signed through 2024. Since teams became eligible to sign their 2011 first-round picks, during the 2014 offseason, no franchise has given a first-round wide receiver an extension with two years of control remaining. This is the 10th offseason since fifth-year options became an annual transaction, but the Vikings have seen Jefferson soar to unprecedented heights over his first three years and look to still be considering an exception to this rule.

The NFL’s all-time leader (by a wide margin) in receiving yards through three seasons, Jefferson became extension-eligible in January. Preliminary talks occurred earlier this year, but a June report indicated the Vikings may be more keen on hammering out a record-setting Jefferson re-up in 2024. But SI.com’s Albert Breer notes the Vikings are indeed aiming to have a Jefferson extension in place before Week 1.

This is quite the complex stretch for the Vikes, who have Hockenson angling to become the NFL’s highest-paid tight end. Jefferson will undoubtedly become the league’s highest-paid receiver when he signs his second contract, but will Minnesota complete both of these deals within the next two weeks? Hockenson is going into his fifth-year option season and is far from the NFL’s best tight end. Jefferson, 24, has a clear claim to being the best player at his position.

After some cost cuts and trades this offseason, the Vikings sit at $10.8MM in cap space. Unlike some other players with contract issues this year, Jefferson did not skip minicamp or stage a hold-in. It will be interesting to see if an increased sense of urgency forms here, with the All-Pro wideout 13 days from playing on a $2.4MM base salary. The Vikings have the option of stringing this out, via the fifth-year option and a 2025 franchise tag, but the organization appears interested in making a last-ditch effort to wrap this up soon.

Tyreek Hill‘s $30MM-per-year contract has represented the wideout ceiling since March 2022, but an inflated final year of the Dolphins star’s contract was necessary to drag the AAV to that $30MM place. Jefferson will likely not need a backloaded deal to inflate the AAV, and given the cap being back on the rise and a four-year age gap existing between Jefferson and Hill, the fourth-year Viking can argue for a push toward $35MM per year. Jefferson dropping another monster season will only increase his price, with the cap expected to move toward or beyond $250MM in 2024.

Last year’s wide receiver market boom set up Justin Jefferson for a monster extension, and the superstar Vikings pass catcher continued his historic ascent with a push for the first 2,000-yard receiving season. While Jefferson fell short (an NFL-most 1,809 yards), he did nothing to remove himself from the record-setting extension track.

Jefferson and the Vikings have begun discussions, but it does not sound like the team is intent on hammering out a deal before the season. Both Kevin O’Connell and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have indicated a desire to have Jefferson locked down long term, though the former did not want to place a timeline on these talks. The contract is all but certain to set the market at the receiver position. But the Vikings picking up Jefferson’s fifth-year option limits the urgency on the team’s part, since that transaction pushed the All-Pro’s contract through 2024.

[RELATED: Kirk Cousins Not Expecting Contract Talks Until 2024]

Teams do not make a habit of extending non-quarterbacks with two years of control remaining, and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com noted during a recent SportsCenter appearance the Vikings may not be committed to extending their top player just yet. The team is not in a rush here, per Fowler (h/t SI.com’s Joe Nelson), due to both the money involved and the rookie-contract component. Although Minnesota believes Jefferson is a cornerstone player and the league’s best wideout, the NFL’s modern history with receiver extensions may complicate matters.

Since 2014, the first year players given fifth-year options under the 2011 CBA were eligible for extensions, no team has authorized an extension for a first-round receiver before his option year. Star first-round talents like Julio Jones, A.J. Green, DeAndre Hopkins, Odell Beckham Jr. and Mike Evans each signed extensions during the offseason of their respective option years. Amari Cooper and Mike Williams played out their option seasons and re-signed during the ensuing offseason. A fairly extensive history exists of teams tabling receiver extensions, but Jefferson’s camp may try to force the issue.

Off to a better statistical start than any of the above-referenced receiver standouts chosen in Round 1 (or any wideout in NFL history), Jefferson skipped Vikings offseason workouts before reporting to minicamp. Jefferson plans to show for training camp, as the 2020 CBA placed stiff penalties on holdouts, but a hold-in measure should not be ruled out. Jefferson’s 4,825 receiving yards are the most through three seasons in NFL history, outpacing the previous three-year pace setter here (Randy Moss) by nearly 700. Jefferson can ramp up the pressure on a Vikings team that needs him by holding in, but if the Vikings do not cave, he will be tied to a $2.39MM salary.

Vikings negotiations with the 24-year-old phenom figure to start north of Tyreek Hill‘s $30MM-per-year deal, and while it took a backloaded deal for the Dolphins wideout t0 land that lofty per-year average, the NFC North pass catcher should be able to secure a $30MM-plus AAV without heavy backloading. The Vikings’ preference to not have injury guarantees vest a year out may be an issue for Jefferson’s camp, though the team made an exception for Cousins. That issue aside, we have not heard any major hiccups in these negotiations. If Jefferson is intent on breaking precedent and landing a monster deal ahead of his fourth season, however, some turbulence could emerge.

The 2020 CBA introduced fully guaranteed fifth-year options, and Jefferson is tied to a $19.74MM 2024 salary as a result. But the option’s existence still restricts first-round picks, while later-round selections are frequently paid before Year 4. Last year featured the receiver standouts from the 2019 second and third rounds — A.J. Brown, Deebo Samuel, Terry McLaurin, D.K. Metcalf and Diontae Johnson — secure pre-Year 4 extensions. It will be interesting to see if Jefferson is forced to wait until his fifth offseason for his payout.

Justin Jefferson is eyeing an extension that will make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL. While his camp continues to work with the Vikings on a lucrative extension, the wideout hasn’t shown any interest in holding out. Speaking to reporters this week, Jefferson said he would be at training camp with or without a new contract.

[RELATED: Vikings’ Contractual Preferences To Hinder Justin Jefferson Negotiations?]

Jefferson skipped all of the Vikings voluntary OTAs, but he was in attendance this week for mandatory minicamp. Per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, Jefferson attributed his previous absences to marketing and endorsement opportunities, and the WR said that the contract talks were “not too much a part of” him skipping the voluntary portion of camp.

“[Negotiations] happen every single year,” Jefferson said (via Seifert). “It’s not something that’s new towards the game. Eventually, we knew we were going to have to talk contract.

“I had a lot of stuff going on. They didn’t really force me to come back too, too much. It didn’t seem like I was missing too, too much. They definitely wanted me back here, and I wanted to be back here, but had a lot going on.”

As Albert Breer of SI.com writes, there’s no good reason for Jefferson to sacrifice money via fines while staging a hold out. After all, both sides seem focused on finalizing a deal, and the team acknowledges that Jefferson’s extension will reset the market. Really, the monetary aspect of the deal should be easy, and Breer believes it’s just a question of how the extension is structured. We previously heard that the Vikings prefer injury guarantees that do not become fully guaranteed until the year the money is due, a potential holdup for Jefferson’s camp.

Jefferson is still playing out his rookie contract and will earn $2.4MM in 2023 and $19.7MM in 2024 (via the fifth-year option). The receiver has topped 1,400 yards in each of his three seasons, and he earned Offensive Player of the Year honors this past season after finishing with 128 receptions for 1,809 yards and eight touchdowns.

The Dolphins made Tyreek Hill the first (and currently only) $30MM/year wideout, although that AAV is partially inflated by an untenable $43.9MM salary in 2026. Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp, and A.J. Brown also top the $25MM/year mark, so Jefferson’s next contract will probably come in around at least $30MM.

With three years of service time under his belt, Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson is now eligible for an extension. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes, Jefferson has been staying away from the club during offseason workouts as part of his efforts to land what could be the richest WR contract in league history.

The Dolphins made Tyreek Hill the first (and currently only) $30MM/year wideout, though that number is inflated by an untenable $43.9MM salary in 2026, the final year of Hill’s contract. At that time, there will be no guaranteed money left on the deal, so player and team will either have to agree to an extension/restructure, or Hill will simply be released.

Given Jefferson’s age (he will turn 24 this month) and remarkable production over the first three seasons of his professional career, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year has grounds to demand a contract featuring a “legitimate” $30MM AAV. He also has a good chance to top the $75MM of practical guarantees that the Rams authorized for Cooper Kupp almost exactly one year ago.

The problem, according to Florio, is that Minnesota generally prefers to include in its contracts injury guarantees that do not become fully guaranteed until the year the money is due. In other words, as long as the player stays healthy, the Vikings can extricate themselves from the deal with relative ease.

Of course, given the importance of the quarterback position, Minnesota made an exception for Kirk Cousins. It stands to reason that the team would do the same for Jefferson, who not only plays a premium position, but who is arguably the best player at that position despite his youth. Florio asked a source involved in the Jefferson negotiations if the Vikings’ structural preferences would become an issue, and the source simply replied, “we’ll see.”

At this point, there is no reason to think that the two sides will ultimately fail to reach an accord. It just may take awhile to get there, which is often the case with highly-lucrative contracts, especially those that could set a new benchmark at a certain position.

Indeed, while a Jefferson extension is reportedly a top agenda item for the Vikings, head coach Kevin O’Connell recently suggested that there is still a great deal of work to be done.

“I don’t know if I’d put a timeline on it,” O’Connell said last month. “I just know that, you know, we very much are looking forward to having Justin play here for a really long time. … I look forward to when we get that done and we can move forward knowing that Justin’s going to be here for the long term and we will get that done. Justin knows, his representation knows exactly how we feel about him.”

In 2022, Jefferson led the league in receptions (128) and yards (1,809). He also tallied eight receiving touchdowns and threw in a rushing score for good measure. He finished fifth in MVP voting.