Forum Friday: Life Without JJ
Over at Purple Pain Forums, there is a group of passionate Vikings fans who regularly participate in lively debates and conversations about the Minnesota Vikings. The “Forum Friday” piece on PurplePTSD captures a small portion of that passion.
A recent piece titled “Life Without JJ: Week 1” details some of the issues we saw in Week 6 while the Vikings struggled to outduel the Bears at Soldier Field. Basically no one involved in Minnesota’s offense — from head coach Kevin O’Connell to even the fans themselves — could be impressed by what they saw last Sunday. How bad were things without Mr. Jefferson to cover a multitude of sins?
Forum Friday: October 20th, 2023
Justin Jefferson is a uniquely talented player, someone who demands so much attention that the rest of the offense finds room to operate. Replacing him is no small task.
The author of the forum post, whoskmoon, understands the challenge of life without #18: “Across the NFL there are certain players that if a team were to lose them, that team would have almost no shot at making the playoffs, let alone win once they got there. Most of those players are QBs, with Mahomes, Allen, and Burrow being first and foremost among them. Very few are wide receivers, and unfortunately for the Vikings, they lost one of those very important wide receivers last week against the Chiefs.”
Struggling during Jefferson’s absence is both predictable and excusable.
A major part of the concern, though, is that Minnesota was facing the 2023 Bears, not the 1985 Bears on Sunday. Put differently, the Vikings should have been able to still have a nice day on offense even without their WR1 wreaking havoc on the other team’s corners. But, as we all know by now, the Vikings are never bound by what should happen.
Take a look at how the forums discuss the issue: “So, with the Bears coming in boasting the 27th best defense in yards per drive and 29th in points per drive, even with Justin Jefferson out this offense should have been able to at least match their season average. This is one of the worst defenses they will face after all, and with the offensive line playing really well outside of the right guard position, the highest paid tight end in football still out there along with a rookie wide receiver playing really well besides KJ who is still an okay number three option, there is no reason the Vikings shouldn’t have been able to dominate offensively.”
In the mind of whoskmoon, the issue extends to both the passing and running game: “Here we see that the Vikings passing game has become very conservative in the absence of Jefferson. That ADOT of 6.3, would be dead last among active qualifying QBs this year, and there is not a QB in the NFL who has attempted fewer than two deep attempts per game, making the Vikings one attempt to throw beyond 20 yards really standout. As for the run game, it was even worse than the passing game, but it has been worse than this in the past with JJ on the field, and the Vikings still managed more than 13 points.”
To add onto what’s being said, let me breakdown how the points arrived for the Vikings:
- 6 Points via the Cousins/Addison Touchdown
- 7 Points via Greg Joseph’s Leg
- 6 Points via Jordan Hicks’ Scoop & Score
So, there is a case to be made that giving the offense credit for 13 points may be generous. After all, Joseph had to drill a pair from 50+, so it’s not like Cousins & Friends were picking up massive yardage.
On PurplePTSD, there has been a similar focus the team’s foibles on offense. Remove Jefferson from the equation: what is the Vikings’ identity on offense? Passes aplenty would certainly form part of the answer. Another part of the answer will be Kirk Cousins leaning on his massive brain to decode what a defense is doing in real time, making adjustments at the line of scrimmage in an attempt to put Minnesota in a favorable look.
Nailing down an ironclad answer is difficult, though. All of the offseason talk about continuity and being more multiple haven’t amounted to the improvements many were expecting. Rather than rising to elite, the Vikings’ offense has fallen into average. Put simply, there’s no avenue for the Vikings to become a playoff threat if O’Connell’s side of the ball isn’t among the very best in the NFL.
Readers interested in reading more of the analysis can do so at Purple Pain Forums. The misguided souls who still have an affinity for social media can even find them on Twitter.
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.