Vikings’ Justin Jefferson to star in Netflix’s ‘Receiver,’ a documentary akin to ‘Quarterback’ with Kirk Cousins

Fans will get a chance to see more of receiver Justin Jefferson’s 2023 season, a year after Netflix cameras followed quarterback Kirk Cousins for a similar documentary series.

Jefferson and four other star NFL pass catchers were announced Tuesday as part of Netflix’s “Receiver,” an eight-part series scheduled to premiere this summer. Jefferson joins the 49ers’ Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, the Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown and the Raiders’ Davante Adams on the screen after Netflix appeared to have trouble recruiting more quarterbacks for a second season.

The first eight-part series, featuring Cousins, the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Falcons’ Marcus Mariota, drew strong positive reviews from critics and fans for providing more context in the preparation and determination required to play in the NFL.

But quarterbacks including Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields, Matthew Stafford, Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence publicly declined offers to participate in the show, which is led by Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and NFL Films. Manning told the Hollywood Reporter last year that he’d been told no by three different quarterbacks in one day and was “swallowing my pride.”

Cousins, who left the Vikings this month for a four-year, $180 million deal with the Falcons, has previously said he thought the public could learn from behind-the-scenes injury management. The first season showed him playing through a rib injury in the 2022 season. He also wanted to capture the moments for his young sons Cooper and Turner.

“It will always be there,” Cousins said last summer. “So, we can go back to it. I did find myself, as I saw it or even when I was at the premiere thinking, this will be pretty cool in five to six years to show my boys.”

The next iteration of the series will also include plenty of injury management.

Cameras were following Jefferson last season when he missed the first seven games of his NFL career because of a hamstring strain suffered Week 5 against the Chiefs. He appeared in 10 games and caught 68 passes for 1,074 receiving yards and five touchdowns, setting the NFL record for most receiving yards (5,899) through the first four seasons of a player’s career.