Rival Defender Throws Shade at Justin Jefferson
The Minnesota Vikings are 1-0 in the division this season, having beaten the Chicago Bears in Week 1. At 3-4, Kevin O’Connell’s squad is getting ready for a bout against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, but another division rival is igniting some beef.
Rival Defender Throws Shade at Justin Jefferson
Bears safety Jaquan Brisker is in his fourth season, and Chicago’s 2022 second-rounder has just poked the bear (or Viking). Justin Jefferson is as good as it gets, and he’s once again proving to be one of the very best players in the sport, putting up over 600 yards in seven games with a shaky J.J. McCarthy and backup Carson Wentz.
But Brisker isn’t impressed by the 2022 Offensive Player of the Year. He recalls his first meeting with Jefferson and that the wideout was “crying” because of some trash talk. He also couldn’t catch a cold, apparently, which doesn’t sound like the 2020 draftee at all.
But here are Mr. Brisker’s claims, which he offered on Thursday: “My rookie year. You can ask Kindle Vildor, he was our corner, and I was talking a lot of trash to Justin Jefferson, and he was crying. In the second half, that’s when he dropped like every ball. First half, he killed us. But [in the] second half, just pay attention to the game, you’ll see.”
We don’t have to track down Kindle Vildor, who the Tampa Bay Buccaneers currently employ. All we have to do is look at the stat sheet from Brisker’s rookie season. It was a Week 5 game in Minneapolis, and the Vikings won 29-22.
Jefferson caught 12 passes for 154 yards, and he had a 23-yard completion as a passer. If he caught 12 passes and had a bunch of drops, he must have had 20 targets. Wrong, he had 13 targets and neither Pro Football Reference nor PFF counted that one failed connection as a drop. Jefferson had 138 yards at halftime, which can be counted as “killed us.”
One explanation could be that Brisker was referring to the other game that year. Don’t forget: Division rivals face each other twice. Indeed, Jefferson caught only four passes for 38 yards in that rematch.
The Vikings won 29 to 13. But not so fast. That game took place in Week 18, and the Vikings didn’t play for anything. Jefferson didn’t play in the second half, and the Bears clinched the first overall pick that game. That season might not be something Bears players should be too proud of in general, and Brisker can’t hint at that game either.
In 2023, Jefferson missed both games versus Chicago due to his hamstring injury, and Brisker missed both games against the Vikings in 2024.
In one of those 2024 games, however, the Bears limited Jefferson to only two receptions for 27 yards.
After the game, Jefferson was asked about his slow day in the overtime win, and he delivered a sweet response, “It’s either let everybody else go off or let Justin go off, I’ma let everybody else go off. That would be my game plan.”
Jefferson has always been a true team-first player, and he seems to be genuinely happy when his teammates make plays rather than ask for his own plays.
Brisker, who didn’t help the Bears that game, as he was dressed in street clothes, didn’t like that and noted on social media, “This is actually called Jaylon Johnson effect lol.. so he couldn’t go off.”
Perhaps Brisker didn’t watch the game, but Johnson was called for a couple of pass interference calls, and the Bears’ aggressive game plan to limit Jefferson helped T.J. Hockenson and Jordan Addison torch them with 15 receptions for 276 yards and one touchdown.
The safety has embarrassed himself twice regarding Jefferson, and it might be time for the Bears to limit his access to microphones and social media.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.