Justin Jefferson — Week 2: Thirty Yards on the Second Snap
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Jefferson caught 3 of 6 targets for 55 yards and two first downs, 30 of them deep left on the second snap of the game to set up the opening field goal. Five of the six targets came before halftime, and a seventh throw his way drew defensive holding and did not count. Neither team scored a touchdown in a 9–3 win over the Bears.
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Nothing to nothing, 14 oh four left in the first quarter, second and two at the Minnesota 36, the second snap of the game. Carson Wentz threw deep left and Justin Jefferson caught it 30 yards downfield, pushed out at the Chicago 34. +1.9 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 7.4 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain by any Vikings pass or run play all afternoon. The drive reached the Chicago 17, where Wentz went back to him on third and six, deep middle, incomplete, and Will Reichard kicked the 35-yard field goal. In a game that ended nine to three without a touchdown by either team, that catch was the longest play Minnesota had.
The line: six targets, three catches, 55 yards, two first downs, +1.5 expected points on his targets, 91 air yards. The catches: the 30; 16 on third and four from the Minnesota 42 with 13 15 left in the second quarter, tied at three, short middle to the Chicago 42, on the drive that ended in Reichard's 49-yard field goal; and nine on third and 19 with 41 seconds left in the half, which brought on the punt. The incompletions: the deep middle throw on third and six, short left on second and 12 at the Chicago 33, and deep left on first and 10 from the Minnesota 12 with 14 49 left in the fourth. Three third-down targets, two caught, one converted. One more throw does not count: deep right with four oh five left, incomplete, and defensive holding on Tyrique Stevenson gave Minnesota five yards and a first down instead.
Six targets led the Vikings, ahead of five to Jordan Addison and four to T.J. Hockenson, with one each to Josh Oliver, DeeJay Dallas, Demond Claiborne and Myles Price, and one throw with no receiver listed. Wentz threw all 20 passes for a hundred 43 yards, 55 of them Jefferson's. Five of his six targets came before halftime, when Wentz threw 13 times; after it Wentz threw seven times and one was for Jefferson, as Minnesota ran 13 designed runs against nine pass plays with a three-point lead.
Back in June the preview made no call on Jefferson: the fifth receiver off the board, a generational target earner coming off two touchdowns all of last season on a hundred 41 targets, with the rebound close to automatic and already in the price, and who was throwing it plus the touchdown count as the September watch. Week 1 was eight catches on nine targets for 92 yards and two touchdowns, most of it from Wentz after Kyler Murray was hurt. This week Murray was ruled out, per CBS Sports, Wentz threw every pass, and the count stayed at two because nobody in the building scored one. He has led the team in targets both weeks, nine and then six. Two games, both from the backup quarterback, settle little about the rebound. Minnesota is at the Buccaneers on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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