The receiver is unhappy, and that much is clear.
Stop me if you have heard this one before. Disgruntled star receiver scrubs his social media following a frustrating season of underproduction. The tried and true method of voicing displeasure with either a complete deactivation or scrubbing of anything team-related from a player's social media is rinse and repeat. The Minnesota Vikings are the newest team left to decipher what their receiver's social media action really means.
Is this the receiver stepping away from social media to "lock in?" Does Justin Jefferson want to be traded? Is the distraction of social media and the ruthless comment sections something Jefferson is avoiding? It's really hard to say, and that is the problem.
There is a chance Jefferson relayed a message to Vikings management about the deactivation of his Instagram. How likely is that? I'd say less than ten percent.
Social media has allowed messages to be sent even without a post or an actual message. Most likely, Jefferson is unhappy and will start to voice his displeasure to his agent and form an actual trade request. Trade requests don't have to be answered. There is a chance that both sides can mend the fences. It has happened before.
Let's just operate under the assumption Jefferson wants out. It does seem to be the topic of all discussions, and no matter what this "headache" looks like with social media, teams will line up to acquire the ultra-talented receiver.
Jordan Dajani of CBS Sports is operating under that assumption. One of his ten crazy predictions is that Minnesota moves the former LSU receiver this offseason.
"Joe Brady's name popped up on NFL radars in 2019, when he served as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach at LSU. The undefeated Tigers had a historical season, which was powered by the play of Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase. Now, he's the head coach of the Bills, and this offseason, Buffalo makes an aggressive move to pair its new coach with a friend of his -- sending the Minnesota Vikings a package of picks for Jefferson.
"He's already been doing a phenomenal job behind the scenes," Jefferson told USA TODAY recently about coach Brady. "He's a great guy, he's a great coach. Having him as my offensive coordinator my 2019 year, we had so much fun together just building and working on our craft. I feel like he was mostly the reason why I got picked first round. He's the reason why my hands got better, why a lot of things occurred during that season, so I'm just proud of him to go from the Saints to LSU and now he's back in the league and now he's about to be a head coach..."
Why would Buffalo choose now to take a big swing at receiver? After all, Brandon Beane hasn't been this aggressive before. Realize that the Bills front office is under just as much pressure as Brady to prove that the firing of Sean McDermott wasn't a mistake. It's about winning right now for the Bills, and what they will do is lean into Brady's vision for the offense. Yes, Brady oversaw the No. 1 rushing attack in the NFL this past season, but his background is passing the ball.
Jefferson is coming off his worst NFL season, as he set career lows in receiving yards (1,048) and receiving touchdowns (2). We all know he's one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. His career 90.2 receiving yards per game ranks No. 2 in NFL history, and his 7,432 receiving yards through five seasons were the most in NFL history. Imagine a talent like Jefferson teaming up with a quarterback like Josh Allen."