Reaching 1,000 yards is a vital milestone for Jefferson's legacy. Minnesota must ensure this elite receiver gets the targets he deserves.
At this point in the season, the Vikings’ success is mostly about looking toward the future. But there’s still real work left to do right now, and there are a few individual milestones that might not change the long-term direction of the franchise, but still matter to the fan base, to the record books, and to how this season gets remembered.
The biggest one is Justin Jefferson getting to 1,000 receiving yards.
Jefferson has been one of the NFL’s premier receivers since the moment he arrived in 2020 with a 1,400-yard breakout. He later cleared 1,800 yards in his peak 2022 season, then stayed in that elite range again last year. So the fact that, in 2025, he’s still sitting short of 1,000 with only a couple games left is the kind of thing that can look weird in hindsight, even if everyone living it understands the context: quarterback instability, missed time, and an offense that’s been forced to adjust on the fly.
Assuming Jefferson plays the rest of the way and gets the target share he deserves, he’ll get there. But the Vikings still need to treat it like a priority. Because years from now, people will debate his résumé in chunks, and those round-number milestones have a way of becoming shorthand for entire seasons.
So while the next two weeks are mostly about evaluation and building toward what’s next, one of the simplest boxes Minnesota should make sure it checks is this: regardless of who’s under center, and especially if J.J. McCarthy’s hand injury impacts availability, Jefferson should get the love he deserves and finish the job on 1,000.