Justin Jefferson Hit With Laughable Ranking Among NFL’s Top WRs
I’m gonna say something that shouldn’t be controversial: when Justin Jefferson is healthy (he usually is), he’s one the top two best wide receivers in the NFL, at the very least.
Ever since Jefferson entered the league, he has been an absolute force. The Vikings completely lucked out in 2020 when the first round pick they got from the Stefon Diggs trade turned into the new WR1. A large amount of the luck comes from the Eagles infamously selecting Jalen Reagor instead of Jefferson with the pick immediately before Minnesota had their turn at the board.
Since that fateful night in 2020, Jefferson has been one of the best WRs in the NFL basically the entire time. His 2025 season was far below his standard, as he had to wait until Week 18 to break 1,000 yards receiving. Since you’re a Vikings fan, you know that anything below 1,300 yards is a pretty rough season for Justin Jefferson.
Well, as it turns out, not everyone is enrolled to the school of thought that Justin Jefferson is one of the top two best receivers in the National Football League.
Justin Jefferson the Subject of a Ridiculous Take
CBS Sports‘ Leger Douzable recently had quite the take regarding Justin Jefferson’s status among the NFL’s best wideouts.
“When you look at it, Jaxon Smith-Njigba played with Geno Smith last year, and then he played with Sam Darnold this year, so there’s not a lot of continuity there going into the season. Ja’Marr Chase didn’t have Joe Burrow for nine games and still finished in the top four in receiving yards. Now, J.J. is still a really good player. I just don’t think he’s a top-two receiver in football anymore. I think No. 8 is a little bit too high on this list.”
Douzable got the “No. 8” from the fact that the CBS Sports panel was discussing the best players in the NFL, and Douzable was reacting to the fact that on said list, Justin Jefferson was listed as the eighth best player in the NFL.
I can maybe understand not having him as the eighth-best player in the NFL. To be fair, there’s a ton of absolutely phenomenal players in the league right now. Maybe Leger has a point from a production standpoint about having Chase and Smith-Njigba over Jefferson, especially with Chase’s carousel of QBs he played with last year. Even so, those QBs all performed much better overall than the Vikings’ QBs did last season, and all you have to do to see that is watch the tape.
Justin Jefferson Looks to Reclaim His Spot at the Top in 2026
If there’s anyone that wants a Justin Jefferson return-to-form the most, it’s Justin Jefferson himself. I fully expect Jefferson to remind those who forgot that he’s the best wide receiver on the planet, regardless of who the QB is.
The Vikings completely burned a year of the career of Jefferson, and he and they know that. It’s hard to say right now that Jefferson could be fully maximized with J.J. McCarthy starting, but if we roll with the likely outcome that Murray is the starter, then Justin Jefferson could go absolutely nuts in 2026.
The Minnesota Vikings absolutely can not afford to waste another year in the career of the future Hall of Famer.
