Justin Jefferson Says JJ McCarthy Is On Sam Darnold's Trajectory

Alright, we are here with Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson.

JJ Jay Jettis, what's the, what's the preferred nickname?

You know what I'm saying?

Mostly Jettas, Jets, you know what I'm saying, Jay Jazz, whatever, whichever one you want.

I, I, you know, I'll pass, I'll pass it along to JJ.

I'll pass that down to my youngest, so you know what I'm saying?

I don't really, I don't really answer to JJ no more.

There you go.

All right, so we are in here in San Francisco for the big game and other than the story of the big game, the big story around the NFL is the Hall of Fame.

Bill Belichick.

What were your thoughts on that whole situation?

Crazy, honestly, uh, obviously, you know, you know, being a student of the game and, uh, seeing the history of this game, uh, being a fan of Tom Brady, you know, I, I definitely thought he was gonna be in their first ballot, you know, but, uh, apparently, apparently other people didn't think so, so, uh, that's definitely a crazy, crazy thing that that just happened, but, um.

I don't know.

I think he deserves to be in there.

What do you think?

Well, I, I mean, obviously he should be in, and I'm a Patriots fan, so I'm, I'm a little biased, but, um, as someone whose career is kind of heading towards that trajectory who will be enshrined in there someday themselves, do you think it's lost a little bit of its legitimacy, the Hall of Fame , or?

Um, that's a great question.

Um, possibly, uh, you know, uh, I mean, I don't, I'm not really sure what goes into, you know, picking who, who is who and the first ballots and all of that, but, uh, I mean, I, I just will continue to work, so it's not even a question, you know, it's, it's not even a question that I'm a first ballot Hall of Famer when is that time, uh, but I mean all I can do is be myself and, uh, continue to just put in the work so you know I can wear that gold jacket one of these days.

Yeah, let's talk about your season in Minnesota.

Obviously things didn't go the way you were hoping to.

You've had some quarterback changes, but you're always such a positive person.

How do you stay positive after dealing with, you know, not meeting your goals of the season with the Vikings?

Yeah, I mean, it's tough, you know, it's tough for, for any player, uh, that has goals and aspirations of, uh, a certain thing that, uh, doesn't really get accomplished, uh, but, you know, when, when, when you really look at it and, uh, you know, I had to lean more of a.

Be more of a leader than, uh, you know, just being that superstar uh that I'm normally am, so, uh, understanding the, the adversity that we had to go through during the season, uh, having a young quarterback, you know, that's really, you know, trying to make his way into this league, uh, you kind of have to have that a little bit more patience than, uh, than you normally would, uh, and, and, you know, not really just trying to put a negative light onto him, uh, always trying to lead him with positivity, uh, so he can always have.

Something to, you know, lean on and um take, take forward with because I know he's, he's gonna hear it, you know, uh, either in the building or when he's at home, uh, see a comment that I made or or something like that and I don't, I don't want my starting receiver, I mean starting quarterback to see those negative comments.

How is he?

I mean, how is he in the locker room?

You obviously respect the guy and he's what he needs to develop, but how is he as a teammate?

He's great.

He's phenomenal.

He's a great teammate.

He's a great person, uh, you know, he's he's still young.

He's still young.

He has that young mentality and uh he just wants to get better.

He just wants to to be that quarterback for for this organization uh but it comes with time it comes with preparation, it comes with experience uh and and that's something that people got to really understand uh that you know he has to really be in this league to really understand this league so uh I mean it is what it is.

I feel like he understands that he is room to to to go and room to improve on, uh, he just got to continue to improve on those.

Looking from afar, do you see any parallels to now what your former teammate Sam Darnold, the successes he's having to maybe some of the early doubters that JJ is having now because now Sam's playing in the Super Bowl and being looked at as maybe a top 10 quarterback for sure and um, you know, also when, when people kind of think about the Sam versus JJ, you know, Sam is obviously more of a vet than than JJ with a lot more experience being in different cultures, being in different environments, uh, and, and you know hearing.

So many of those negative comments, uh, and all it was was just, you know, putting Sam around weapons that, you know, he can, he can throw to and, and be able to give a, give a good opportunity to, to go make a play, and, uh, you know, being with us, we had so many different guys that, you know, were surrounding him, uh, it was just all about holding the ball in your hand and, and finishing the game with as least turnovers as you can, uh, and that's kind of something that I feel that he's doing now with Seattle as long.

Long as he's holding the ball , as long as he's not creating those turnovers, then they're gonna win the majority of those those games.

So uh I'm just proud that he's, uh, consistent, you know, with that 14 win season with us and now doubling back, reaching to the Super Bowl, which is insane, uh, so I'm just, you know, proud that he's actually in in this position off the football field you're known for your love of candy.

I wanna ask you, Mount Rushmore of top candies.

Oh, that's tough.

Sour Patch Kids gotta be up there.

Would Sour Patch Kids best describe your route running style?

Nah.

Sour at the start, hard to feel, and then sweet at the end in the touchdown, or you might, yeah, you might be leading into something, nah.

I like that.

Alright, so let's top 4 candy, top 4 candies that we're, we're eating on a cheat day or something.

OK, uh, Sour Patch, I gotta go with the Skittles, purple bag, OK, um, what else?

What other candy?

Um, So you're not a chocolate you're not a chocolate guy, you're more of a, a, a sour sweet type more, but if I did have to put chocolate in there, obviously Twix gotta be in there.

Snickers gotta be in.

I'm more of a chocolate and caramel type of guy, so I gotta have that mixed into that, you know what I'm saying?

All right, talk to me about your work with Lowe's and what you're doing with the big game here.

Yeah, hold on, let me bucket first of all.

We got, we got the, the bucket belt or the belt bucket or whatever you wanna call it, but you gotta earn your Sunday.

So we got all your supplies.

You can put your snacks in here .

You can put, you can fill it with ice, have your drinks in here if you want to, but everything you need to make your Sunday as easy as possible.

So why not go get the bucket?

What's the one go to Sunday game team game day snack you have to have?

That is a great question.

Um, I feel like some good, some good nachos will be good, you know, I'm, I'm a fan of having like, uh, some wings, ranch or ranch or blue cheese, ranch, gotta go with the wing.

I just talked to Gronk.

I don't think he'd be happy with that answer.

Oh, Gronk like blue cheese.

He's from Buffalo.

You, you're right.

You're right about that.

All right, last one for me.

Any predictions or insight into the game on Sunday?

I'm going to Seattle, man.

Rooting for Sam.

I'm, I'm rooting for Sam.

I got a couple of other guys that's, uh, that, that play that played for LSU that's on that squad as well, of course JSN.

I'm a big fan of JSN as well, uh, Cooper Cup.

So, uh, they got a couple of guys on that squad that I, I'm rooting for and happy for that they reached it to this point, uh, but obviously they need to go out there and, and, and play ball and, uh, take the victory.

Alright, Justin Jefferson, thanks so much.

Thank you for having me.