On the surface, everything is fine for the Minnesota Vikings. Even after losing their first game of the season against the Detroit Lions in Week 8, the Vikings are 6-1 and would be the second seed in the NFC if the season ended today. Minnesota still has a talented roster and is expected to be active at the trade deadline.
However, it hasn’t been a stellar season for Vikings superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson, the 2022 Offensive Player of the Year. Jefferson has been a no-brainer fantasy asset for most of his career, but Minnesota’s passing game has gotten off to such a poor start that he’s no longer a guaranteed WR1.
Jefferson is still rostered in 100% of Yahoo Sports fantasy leagues and started in 96%, but his production has been pretty limited as of late, and it might be worthwhile to consider trading him.
Results and Usage
The four-time All-Pro posted the worst season of his career in 2025, barely topping the 1,000-yard mark and finding the end zone only twice while playing with struggling quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer. The Vikings sought to fix their quarterback position during the offseason, adding free agent Kyler Murray after he was released by the Arizona Cardinals, but Jefferson has averaged a career-low 55.8 yards per game and has only found the end zone twice since Week 1. He’s finished with single-digit DraftKings FPTS three times in six games after doing so 22 times in 94 games across the first six seasons of his career.
Advanced numbers don’t even like Jefferson as much as they used to. He finished in the top five by Pro Football Focus’ standards in each of the first four seasons of his career, but he slipped to 16th in 2025 and 12th so far in 2026. He’s also posted his fewest yards per catch after the reception and by far his highest drop rate. As he did in 2023, he’s averaged 2.7 yards of separation per targeted route, but the two quarterbacks he played with that season were more accurate than Murray has been so far. Plus, Jefferson has recorded his shallowest average target, so he’s had to do more after the catch.
Future Outlook
Jefferson is by far the most talented receiver on Minnesota’s roster, but so far this season, the Vikings have had a pretty egalitarian passing attack. Although he still leads the team with 40 targets, tight end T.J. Hockenson has garnered 37 and wideout Jordan Addison 33. That hasn’t typically been an aspect of a Murray-led offense; in his final full season with the Cardinals in 2024, Marvin Harrison Jr. received 45 more targets than any other receiver, although tight end Trey McBride was the recipient of a team-high 147 passes. Never before have Murray’s targets been so evenly distributed among three different players, which could help Jefferson’s fantasy prospects in the end at the expense of Addison’s.
There aren’t that many targets to go around as is. Kevin O’Connell has called an extremely run-centric offensive philosophy this season, as Minnesota ranks 10th in rushing attempts and 30th in passing attempts, calling runs at the eighth-highest rate overall. The Vikings are also rumored to be targeting Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, so their running game (which ranks just 22nd by yards per attempt) could become more effective, potentially taking even more snaps away from Jefferson. Minnesota has also been rumored to be considering a quarterback change, though Carson Wentz isn’t an obvious upgrade over Murray.
However, Jefferson is still worth starting this week because of the Vikings’ Week 9 opponent, the Buffalo Bills. This season, Buffalo has allowed the sixth-most DraftKings FPTS per game to opposing wide receivers, giving up the joint-most touchdowns (11). Although he’s had a tough time gaining yards after the catch this season, the Bills could provide a respite, as they’ve missed the third-most tackles so far despite playing one fewer game than the two teams ahead of them. He’s likely to see targets against both Davison Igbinosun and Christian Benford, who rank 70th and 72nd, respectively, among 102 qualified cornerbacks by PFF’s grades. His 14.3 DK FPTS in Week 8 against a similarly weak secondary in the Lions made him fantasy-viable, so as long as he scores against Buffalo, he should be worth starting again.
