If you were to have watched the national coverage of the Minnesota Vikings trying to extend wide receiver Justin Jefferson, you would have gotten a very twisted perspective on what the situation actually was.
All you heard from those who don't cover the team directly was that they should trade him or it would be too much and they wanted to trade for Malik Nabers just to trade Jefferson after the fact. My personal favorite was that signing Jefferson was going to "slow their rebuild."
Ultimately, the Vikings were never going to trade Jefferson and it has been clear as day for the Vikings since the NFL Scouting Combine when general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said that they had never once considered it.
"That is not something that once crossed my mind. You’ve got a blue player, blue person. You try and keep as many of those as you can."
Viking were never going to trade Justin Jefferson
It had gotten so bad that beat reporters who cover the Vikings had started fighting against those rumors on Twitter/X.
You can just say anything in this media environment, and no matter who you are someone will believe it and give it life, and there will be no repercussions for being totally wrong. What a time. https://t.co/Z6wp11wBcw
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) May 31, 2024
If you paid attention to what leadership was saying and how those who cover the team were reporting it, there wasn't a doubt. It especially wasn't a doubt when you consider they were inches away from getting the deal done last September.
It was never a discussion amongst team leadership, as they stayed steadfast in that belief. With everything in the rearview, O'Connell took one last chance to say that the Vikings had unequivocally had never discussed trading the superstar wide receiver.
"Yeah, I think it's a good question because a lot of times we know the integrity and the pillars of communication, the things we feel that are very true are happening in real time, not only amongst each other, but with the player involved, with the representation of the player involved. There's a certain way we kind of do business and so when you hear some things, a lot of things kind of come and go and you chalk it up to whatthey are, but when there'sthingsthat are just so far outside the realm of what's actually happening and taking place, you find yourself wanting to come out and say, which I will unequivocally, we never ever one time discussed internally amongst the leadership. I don't know if some people have sources far and wide, but I would say amongst the leadership, amongst the decision makers, the people that are directly involved with the situation, there really was not one time that was ever discussed, game planned, contingency planned. I think that's important because it's not just about the result from today. It’s about the process at which we're pretty proud of, although timelines sometimes aren't on other people's lenses as far as whether it was productive or not but I can tell you what got done with Justin Jefferson how it got done and then the type of team locker room he walked back into today coaching staff and the excitement Justin had to be here today are all benefits from that process being what it was."
The offseason is a place where speculation runs wild and analysts are trying to find anything to talk about to drive discussion, interest and ratings. It's the nature of the media landscape we currently live in. Nothing had changed with the Vikings desire to keep Jefferson and, even though other teams called, they shot it down immediately.
This is a firm reminder to always listen to those who cover the team directly with a situation like this.
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