Vikings begin reconfiguring their offense without Justin Jefferson

In the time leading up to the Vikings' first practice of the week on Wednesday afternoon, it was almost as though nothing had changed with Justin Jefferson. The Vikings' top receiver still was moving around their practice facility with his customary optimism, tight end T.J. Hockenson said.

"I've seen him throughout the building. I just talked to him; his mood's high," Hockenson said. "That's a credit to him. He's one of our captains, and a guy that has the same mood every day coming in. That's what we look for in those kinds of people."

It wasn't until the Vikings hit the field Wednesday, for the first practice Jefferson has missed in Kevin O'Connell's two years as head coach, that the 2022 NFL offensive player of the year's absence took its full effect. The Vikings placed Jefferson on injured reserve Wednesday afternoon, with the right hamstring injury he sustained on Sunday, and began the process of preparing for their first game without him since Jan. 3, 2020, when he was a junior at LSU getting ready for the national championship game.

The earliest Jefferson could return is for the Vikings' Nov. 10 game against the Saints, and while O'Connell would not disclose the specific grade of Jefferson's hamstring strain, he said he didn't anticipate the injury would be season-ending, which effectively would rule out a Grade 3 strain.

"I don't want to speculate on exactly when it will be," O'Connell said, "but I know he feels pretty good, considering [the injury] having just been this past Sunday. It's just going to be about all it entails to go through the process, to where he can have some time to start feeling like he can be at full speed again."

In the meantime, the Vikings will try to reconfigure their offense without Jefferson, who has accounted for 26.2% of their targets this season and has 35.7% of the team's targeted air yards, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. First-round pick Jordan Addison, who was limited with an ankle injury on Wednesday, will play a larger role alongside Hockenson and K.J. Osborn, and the Vikings could involve running backs Alexander Mattison and Cam Akers in the passing game to a greater degree.

The Vikings also could see teams approach them differently without Jefferson there to draw double teams. O'Connell said the Vikings could notice the biggest change on third downs and red-zone plays, where teams have been most likely to use true double teams against Jefferson.

"We found different ways at different times to activate him and have some successful plays against those looks," O'Connell said. "But [it's] also what it's done for Jordan on some of those downs, where essentially he finds single coverage and the ability, when the pocket allows, to attack downfield."

But O'Connell also was asking, "How does not having him affect those early downs?"

"Are we going to see as much shell coverage as we've historically seen? And if not, how do we have to retool our run and pass game?," he said. "There's no real excuse to say Monday morning [after the game], 'Aw shucks, it was different.' We've got to plan accordingly for both, and that's where I feel comfortable with our system doing that."

Outside the team's facility, Jefferson's injury fueled speculation about whether the 1-4 Vikings would try to deal veterans before the Oct. 31 trade deadline and accumulate draft picks in a pivot to the future. Quarterback Kirk Cousins, whose pending free agent status makes him perhaps the biggest subject of that speculation, demurred Wednesday when asked if he would consider waiving his no-trade clause.

"I'm just very focused on the Bears and going 1-0 this week," he said. "Anything else is just not worth my time or energy or attention."

Cousins recalled the 2015 season, when Washington started 2-4 and came back to win the NFC East as his "You like that?!" phrase became a rallying cry. In 2016 with Washington and 2020 with Minnesota, he said, he was on teams that came within a game of the playoffs after slow starts.

"You understand there's a lot of football ahead, and ultimately that will drive it," he said. "But you can't keep saying that; you've got to do it. You've got to change and win."

If the Vikings can win without Jefferson, they hope, they'll be in a spot to do something meaningful when he's back on the field.

"He'll be all right. He's still going to be the same Justin when he comes back," Hockenson said. "A big part of the game is guys getting injured. You have to rely on those guys. We have every confidence in the world they're going to come out and play well."