Jared Allen Sees a Clear Next Step for the Vikings’ WR1
Left up to retired pass rusher Jared Allen, Justin Jefferson would land major money.
Kay Adams of the Up and Adams Show released a short clip from an interview with Jared Allen, the All Pro pass rusher who called Minnesota home from 2008-13. She ventures into the unsigned Jefferson extension and Allen wasn’t lukewarm about how the team should proceed: “Pay him.”
Jared Allen and Justin Jefferson
Much of Allen’s rationale rests in how Jefferson helps the offense more broadly.
“He changes the game, he opens up your run game,” Allen argues. The defender goes on to explain that if the plan is to roll with J.J. McCarthy — it is — then Minnesota “cannot let [Jefferson] go.”
Much of Allen’s reasoning derives from his experience playing defense in the NFL.
When the pass rusher was a Viking, Calvin Johnson — nicknamed Megatron — was the arguably the top receiver in the league. Allen reflects on the Detroit receiver to explain why Jefferson is so important: “Playing against the Megatrons of the world, where you have to bracket, you gotta put two on him.”
The simple reality of needing “two people to him all the time just makes it harder to play defense and makes it easier to play offense.”
The basic thinking makes a lot of sense. Defensive coaches always want to have a numbers advantage. If there are two blockers, then the defensive coordinator needs to have three players available. Two can be taken out by a block and there will still be an open man for a tackle.
Pursuing that objective becomes more difficult when a pair of players need to be devoted to a single person.
Justin Jefferson will turn 25 in June. He is carrying Minnesota’s second-largest cap hit into the season at roughly $19.7 million for 2024.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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.
