Minnesota Vikings General Manager is hopeful to tie star wide receiver Justin Jefferson up for a long deal soon.
After this season, standout wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings Justin Jefferson will become eligible for a contract extension, and it is expected that he would want a lucrative deal.
The 23-year-old Jefferson is coming off a season in which he was named to the Pro Bowl for the third year in a row and led the NFL in receiving yards with 1,809 and catches with 128. Jefferson, who will be selected in the first round of the 2020 draught, is scheduled to earn $2.39 million in 2023, will almost certainly have his fifth-year option taken up, and is eligible for an extension. It appears that the aforementioned extension will be of a substantial sort.
The general manager of the Vikings, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, revealed nothing more than the beginning of exploratory conversations. However, he did highlight that he does not consider the necessity of negotiating a big deal as a barrier, but rather as a simple component of the equation that must be solved in order to roster a top-tier player such as Jefferson.
Speaking about Jefferson, Adofo-Mensah said, “I wouldn’t use the word challenge, You got a special player, a special person. Those aren’t problems, or at least those are champagne problems. We’ll start there. Yeah, we’ve had initial dialogue with him, his agent, all those things. We can factor that into the planning, but again it really starts from the player, the person, and we’ll work out solutions from there on.”
Jefferson is likely to secure the most biggest contract ever for a wide receiver in the history of the NFL and he fully deserves it. The Vikings are hopeful about the former LSU WR but as seen in the past situations around a player could change very quickly.
After signing a contract deal until 2023 prior to the start of the previous season, quarterback Kirk Cousins is also anticipated to return for the second year of the Adofo-Mensah-O’Connell era. The Vikings are hoping that the combination of Cousins and Jefferson can wreak havoc once more the following year and help them make a run at the Super Bowl.
Adofo-Mensah said, “It’s our expectation that he’ll be our quarterback, I can’t say exactly how that would look, again we have everything at our disposal. We’ll consider all those things just like we will with everybody else on the roster.”
In 2022, Cousins enjoyed one of the best seasons of his professional career. After passing for 4,547 yards and 29 touchdowns while also setting a new career high with 13 quarterback victories, he was selected for his fourth Pro Bowl. In all honesty, cutting ties with Cousins would be expensive since he has a dead cap charge of $48.75 million if he is released prior to June 1 and a hit of $36.5 million if he is released after June 1.
Even though the 34-year-old player is now on his third deal with the Vikings, it is not out of the question for him to sign another short-term extension to his current deal. Although there have been no changes to the coaching staff or contract extensions inked as of yet for Minnesota, an interesting offseason is poised to get underway in the very near future.
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