How A 2 Star Recruit Became An NFL Superstar

most rookies need time to adapt to the NFL but this two-star recruit came into the league and took it over right away so how did he do it well here's the story of Justin Jefferson [Applause] 's journey to stardom began in Destrehan Louisiana where he attended desdran high school but it was by no means an easy Journey Justin came from an athletic family his father John played college basketball and his two older brothers Jordan and Ricky both had very successful careers at LSU and played in the NFL so Justin knew exactly what it would take to play football at the highest level but Justin wasn't as physically gifted as his brothers when he first got to high school he was small instead of just five foot seven 125 pounds even under the guidance of his brothers he could only make the JV team as a safety his freshman year he broke his elbow playing scout team during that season three years into his high school career and Justin was yet to reach the heights of his brothers his dream of reaching the NFL was becoming very unlikely and even though he may have started to give up on his dream Justin's family still believed in him and after getting X-rays of his growth plates the doctor informed Justin and his family that he was about to hit a big growth spur that growth spurt came in his junior year when Jess grew to six foot one and gained almost 40 pounds which gave him a shot with the varsity team while he did get on the field in his Junior season his knees constantly knotted up due to his massive growth spurt and he ran with limp this made him look uncoordinated and limited his explosiveness so with one last offseason to follow his brothers and play division one college football Justin was on a mission he started to spend countless hours with his older brother Jordan working on Route running and watching YouTube videos of NFL receivers picking out things to add to his game and once it was time for his final High School season all of his hard work paid off his knees were no longer nodding up and he became a dynamic playmaker Justin exploded with 44 receptions for 956 yards and nine touchdowns this was just a small glimpse of what the rest of his career would look like the problem was even after Justin's amazing senior year he was still just a two-star recruit without any major offers division one programs were worried because off the field Justin needed to complete a summer class in order to graduate his father even talked to him about potentially taking the Division II route but luckily the Jefferson last name carried a lot of weight at one school in particular so when LSU head coach Ed ogeron said he's got a scholarship waiting for him whenever he's ready Justin knew what he needed to do he completed his summer class and became LSU's final scholarship member in the fall of 2017. it wasn't an easy road to college football but Justin Jefferson was right where he always wanted to be right where his brothers were before him he was an LSU Tiger in his freshman season Jefferson Jefferson only played in two games recording just one rush for four yards but it was in his sophomore year that he would put the nation on notice Justin Jefferson had arrived and there was no looking back his connection with new transfer quarterback Joe burrow was immediate and Jefferson led the Tigers in receptions receiving yards and touchdowns that year with 44 receptions for 875 yards and six touchdowns we didn't know it yet but this level of production was just scratching the surface and Jefferson's Junior season he was a part of what was perhaps the greatest college football team of all time this was primarily because of their incredible passing attack with Joe burrow throwing to the greatest wide receiver Duo college football has ever seen in Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase they were unbeaten with relative ease during the regular season and Jefferson led the nation with 111 receptions his 18 receiving touchdowns were second and 1540 receiving yards third in the country in the first round of the college football playoff against the Oklahoma Sooners Jefferson caught 14 passes for 227 yards and four touchdowns in the first half he followed this record-setting performance in the national championship against the Clemson Tigers with a nine catch 106 yard game in a blowout win Justin Jefferson had nothing left to prove in the college game he chose to forego his senior year and declared for the NFL draft in just three years he had gone from an unranked recruit to a projected first-round NFL draft but heading into the draft there were still questions about his athleticism Jefferson often beat DBS with his crafty route running rather than using pure speed or strength so NFL Scouts had doubts about his explosiveness at the next level he quickly silenced his critics after running a 4.4340 at the combine but there were still doubters experts weren't sure if he could line up on the outside against the best corners in the league and be a true number one receiver so much so that in the 2020 draft four receivers were taken ahead of him including Jalen rhaeger who the Eagles selected one pick ahead of Jefferson but after a short wait with the 22nd pick the Minnesota Vikings selected Justin Jefferson and he would enter the league with big shoes to fill right away earlier that off season the Vikings traded away fan favorite receivers Stefon Diggs who was crucial in Minnesota for years and replacing him wouldn't be easy but it didn't take long for Vikings fans to fall in love with the new kid in town in somewhat of an unprecedented off season due to the pandemic that saw no preseason and last off-season training than usual many rookies struggled to get off the mark Jefferson was no exception and he didn't get his first start until week three against the Tennessee Titans when the opportunity came he picked up right where he left off in college in just the first start of his NFL career Justin Jefferson caught seven passes for 175 yards and a touchdown this was also when the world was introduced to the Celebration he's made so famous the gritty he followed up his incredible debut with a four reception 103 yard game in week four against the Texans becoming just the fifth receiver in Vikings History to have back-to-back 100-yard games in their rookie season I had a career game record-setting game it doesn't matter if we don't come out the W then it's pointless after four weeks and just two starts Justin Jefferson had put himself among the best pass catchers in the league he showed no signs of slowing down after a week 6 explosion against the Atlanta Falcons that saw Jefferson put up 166 yards and two touchdowns his frightening Pace made breaking the rookie receiving record a realistic goal in week 13 against the Jaguars 121 yards and a touchdown some break the 1 000 yard receiving mark it took him just 12 games to reach the Milestone making him the fifth fastest player in NFL history to reach 1 000 yards Justin Jefferson's silky route running combined with his incredible ability to get to the point of the catch made him almost Unstoppable to cover one-on-one after Justin's week 15 game against the Chicago Bears where he hauled in eight receptions for 104 yards he broke Randy Moss's Vikings rookie record for receptions and in the final game of the season in Detroit he had nine receptions for 133 yards to set a new NFL rookie record for receiving yards Jefferson finished the year with Ada receptions for 1400 yards and seven touchdowns was selected to the Pro Bowl and was a second team All-Pro despite his historic rookie year he placed second in offensive Rookie of the Year voting to quarterback Justin Herbert then just when we thought Justin Jefferson had hit his ceiling he came into his second gear looking better than ever a full offseason and an added year of experience in the league took Jefferson to the next level even though teams had an entire Year's worth of his film they had no answer on how to stop him he was now a true wide receiver one and was being game plan for as such but it didn't matter Jefferson would always take over games and single-handedly keep the Vikings in games with his play-making ability [Applause] him but even with the Vikings offense being Elites their defense struggled to hold leads and after 10 games they had lost five by a touchdown or less so in a crucial week 11 match-up the 5-5 Minnesota Vikings hosted the Green Bay Packers in a game they needed to win to keep their playoff hopes alive and to the surprise of no one Justin Jefferson single-handedly took over and won the game for the Vikings he ended the game with eight receptions for 169 yards and two touchdowns but most of all the Vikings won the game 34-31 Jefferson was awarded the NFC offensive player of the week for his efforts he was arguably the best player in the entire NFL during the month of November over four games he had 464 yards and three touchdowns on his way to being named the NFC offensive player of the month while the Vikings continued to lose close games Jefferson continued to ball improving on every statistic from his rookie season he finished the season with 108 receptions for 1660 18 yards and 10 touchdowns his 1616 receiving yards were second in the league behind Cooper Cub the incredible start to his career led to Jefferson breaking the record set by Odell Beckham Jr for most receiving yards by a player in their first two seasons in the NFL and for the second year in a row he was selected to the Pro Bowl and was a second team All-Pro missing out on first team honors by just one vote due to a lack of Team success in 2022 the Vikings made a change at head coach bringing in Kevin O'Connell who was previously the Rams offensive coordinator he's made it clear he wants to expand Jefferson's role and transform the Vikings into a more Dynamic passing offense now in Jefferson's third year the Vikings are off to their best start to a season of his career and he's the focal point that the offense revolves around so don't be surprised if we get our first look at Justin Jefferson in the postseason very soon and if the electric start to his career as anything to go by Jefferson will be grittying all the way into the Hall of Fame one day

Channel: Nonstop

Views: 1,980,766

Keywords: NFL, Justin Jefferson

Id: dSH2KeP7zvk

Length: 9min 46sec (586 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2022