​The Minnesota Vikings are likely hoping that the quarterback competition winner can make the most of the team’s weapons, especially Justin Jefferson. Jefferson himself is presumably targeting a bounce-back 2026 NFL season after a tough 2025 campaign. In the previous year, he logged 392 pass snaps for Minnesota, finishing with an 80.5 overall PFF grade. He caught 84 passes on 140 targets for 1,048 receiving yards and two touchdowns, averaging 12.5 yards per catch and generating 435 yards after the catch, though he dropped five passes.
As training camp approaches, ESPN’s Mina Kimes offered a pointed take for Minnesota, arguing that Jefferson cannot endure another season like 2025. “For me, it’s not just about the quarterback,” she said on the July 10 edition of NFL Live. “It’s about the entire team. Justin Jefferson should never have a season like the one we saw last year. He is one of the, if not the best, receivers in football, and he was really limited by quarterback play. To put it in perspective, throwing to Justin Jefferson, J.J. McCarthy had an off-target rate of 28 percent. That is about twice what Sam Darnold’s off-target rate was throwing to Jefferson. And the same with Kirk Cousins. It was mostly not his fault. Frankly, you could see him get frustrated as the season went on.”
Kimes also believes that if Kyler Murray wins the quarterback competition over J.J. McCarthy, Murray could be an average signal-caller, yet that could be a significant boost for Jefferson’s production. “If Kyler Murray brings even average quarterback play, which I think he is capable of, whether or not that ceiling looks more like it did in 2020 has to do with a variety of factors, including his deep ball coming back,” Kimes added. “To me, that’s a massive upgrade, and it’s so important for this group of talented wide receivers to play with a competent quarterback.”
Given Jefferson’s production last season, some have questioned whether he is truly the NFL’s top wide receiver. Even with strong numbers, the inconsistent quarterback play has sparked debate. CBS Sports’ Leger Douzable recently challenged Jefferson’s status as the league’s best, suggesting there are two other receivers who belong in the top spot. “Obviously, J.J. McCarthy really struggled at quarterback, but when I look over the last two seasons, and you look at the receivers who are No. 1 and No. 2 in receiving yards, you have Ja’Marr Chase and Jaxon Smith-Njigba,” Douzable said on a June 25 appearance on CBS Sports HQ. “Well, they’ve had to deal with different quarterbacks, and yet their production is still through the roof.”
As the competition unfolds, it will be interesting to see whether McCarthy or Murray can help Jefferson return to the peak level of production many expect from him and possibly contribute to better search engine optimization with consistent offensive efficiency. The coming quarterback battle looms large for Jefferson, the Vikings’ offense, and the franchise’s ambitions for 2026.