Justin Jefferson not bothered by another quiet game 'as long as we win'

For the second straight week, Justin Jefferson was held to one of the quietest statistical games of his career. But unlike last week, when he left the locker room in Seattle without talking to the media, the face of the franchise had a smile on his face on Sunday. Why? Because the Vikings won.

Jefferson's 4 receiving yards in last week's shutout loss to the Seahawks marked a career low. His second-lowest total ever came today, when he had just two catches for 11 yards in a shutout win over the Commanders. But even if Jefferson would undoubtedly prefer to have the ball in his hands more often, he's never been the type of person to complain after a win.

"Oh, of course," he said when asked if he can enjoy himself when he's not getting the ball. "When you win. I'd rather win and not get the ball than lose and not get the ball. As long as we're winning, this team coming in here with a happy smile on their face ... that's the main objective. As long as we win, that's what I really care about."

What's frustrated Jefferson more than anything to do with his statistical output this season has been the Vikings' inability to win football games. He's the ultimate competitor, and what eats at him is that he's about to go a sixth straight season without a playoff win. So the Vikings ending their four-game losing streak in dominant fashion felt good, no matter what his stats looked like.

"If Justin has demonstrated anything this year, the leadership, smile on his face right now, he wants to win," head coach Kevin O'Connell said. "It's really easy to look at (the stat sheet) and say this guy did this and this guy did that. Justin Jefferson's been playing at a really high level, and he did again today. It's not necessarily always gonna show up in the stat sheet, but he means the absolute world to this organization."

Jefferson caught a screen pass that lost a couple yards in the second quarter, then had a 13-yard gain to move the chains on 3rd and 12 two plays later. That was his final official touch of his day. He had a 10-yard gain negated by penalty and a couple targets that fell incomplete, including a deep shot to the end zone that he couldn't haul in through contact from Commanders corner Mike Sainristil.

There was also a play late in the third quarter that could've easily resulted in a 66-yard touchdown for the Vikings' superstar receiver. O'Connell drew something up on the sideline and Jefferson got wide open behind the defense, but J.J. McCarthy was pressured out of the pocket and didn't see it. The Vikings' young quarterback, who put together the best game of his career, ended up salvaging a 16-yard scramble on the play.

"He had a chance for a touchdown there in the second half, and J.J. got moved off the spot," O'Connell said. "Actually kinda created a play on the sideline to put an exclamation point on the day, and had a chance there, but J.J. had to move off the spot."

"I feel like the whole stadium saw me wide open on that play," Jefferson said with a smile. "It was a great play call. Everything happened very well. It just didn't come to me on that one. It is what it is, and that's not really something that I'm affected by or overly thinking of."

Ultimately, with the Vikings up 31-0 halfway through the fourth quarter, O'Connell made the difficult call to pull his best player out of the game — even if Jefferson tried to avoid it.

"He did not play 60 minutes today, that was a tough conversation," O'Connell said. "He tried to avoid me and run out on the field with about seven or eight minutes left in the game. (It took) a collective group effort between myself, Keenan (McCardell) and a couple other folks — probably Dave Korus, our security guy, as well — because Justin did not want to come out of the game, obviously."

If anyone has any doubts about Justin Jefferson’s priorities: its winning. Stats are an afterthought. pic.twitter.com/xpNZ16sCqm
— Jason Harmon (@_jason_777) December 7, 2025

The Vikings went with another run-heavy game plan on Sunday to try to make things easier on McCarthy. He only completed 16 passes on the day, and his top two targets ended up being Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor. Tight ends Josh Oliver and T.J. Hockenson wound up with the three touchdown catches. All of the attention the Commanders were paying to Jefferson played a big role in the success of his teammates.

With just 15 yards over the last two games, Jefferson is at 810 yards with four weeks left. He's averaged only 47 yards per game in McCarthy's seven starts, and that's right around the number he'll need in order to reach 1,000 yards for the sixth straight season.

Winning is what matters most, but continuing to get Jefferson involved moving forward should only help that cause.

"We're gonna find ways to get Justin the ball," O'Connell said.

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