It’s been a rough enough week already for the Minnesota Vikings, with quarterback J.J. McCarthy sustaining a meniscus injury that required season-ending surgery.
But now you can add insult to injury.
Pro Football Network recently unveiled its list of the best wide receivers in the NFL, and nine teams had two or more wide receivers make the cut.
Justin Jefferson obviously made the list at No. 1, but Jordan Addison wasn’t among the top-32 wide receivers. As a result, the Vikings’ starting WRs didn’t crack the list of the top-nine duos at the position in the NFL.
Did the Vikings get snubbed? Let’s take a deeper look.
Why Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison Should Be Considered a Top-9 WR Duo
If the Vikings still had Troy Williamson on the roster and he was running Robin to Jefferson’s Batman, you’d have to consider them. Jefferson is that good.
No player in NFL history has more receiving yards than Jefferson in their first four seasons (5,899).
Jefferson set the record for receiving yards in a rookie season (1,400). He earned AP Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2022 when he led the league in receptions (128) and yards (1,809). He even tallied over 1,000 yards last season despite missing seven full games and parts of two others.
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For his part, Addison is no slouch, either.
As a rookie in 2023, Addison tallied 70 receptions for 911 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. Addison had more receptions and more receiving yards than Tee Higgins, Cooper Kupp, and Deebo Samuel, and he had more touchdowns than everyone on the list except for Mike Evans and Tyreek Hill.
#Vikings fans – Is your duo snubbed here? @PFN365 full of bright football minds and this is a good list. But curious about where you'd put Jefferson + Addison duo. 🤔 https://t.co/lWaLqLhAWA
— Mike Wobschall (@wobby)
Jefferson is square in the middle of his prime. Addison is ascending – quickly – toward his.
Addison and Jefferson combined for 138 receptions, 1,985 receiving yards, and 15 touchdowns on 208 targets last season, and that is all despite Jefferson missing significant time.
Even when discounting the missed time by Jefferson, the Vikings’ duo would crack this list of nine in each of the following categories: targets, receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. In fact, Addison and Jefferson would:
- Rank tied for third in touchdowns with 15, ahead of the A.J. Brown/DeVonta Smith duo in Philadelphia and the new Nico Collins/Stefon Diggs tandem in Houston.
- Rank ninth in both receptions (138) and receiving yards (1,985), ahead of the San Francisco duo (135) and the Ja’Marr Chase/Tee Higgins combo in Cincinnati (1,872), respectively.
To assist in making statistical comparisons more relevant when it comes to last season and accounting for the seven-plus games Jefferson missed, you can break the statistics down on a per-target basis. Doing so in what is the Addison–Jefferson duo’s weakest category relative to PFN’s list – receiving yards – is eye-popping.
If you stack the list by receiving yards per target, the Vikings’ combo comes in third at 9.5, behind only Aiyuk/Samuel (11.5) and Hill/Jaylen Waddle in Miami (10.2).
Oh, but this list is not solely about 2023 results. You have to project what could be in 2024.
That’s fair.
Along those lines, one could try to poke a hole in the Addison-Jefferson duo by pointing out that the prolific, box score-filling Kirk Cousins is no longer in Minnesota. Keep in mind, however, that Addison and Jefferson played in more games last season without Cousins than they did with him, and their production was nearly identical on a per-game basis whether they were running routes for Cousins or Joshua Dobbs or Jaren Hall or Nick Mullens.
To review, Addison and Jefferson are both either in their prime or about to enter it. They just produced a season together in which they rank favorably among this group in every major statistical category. They’ve proven they can produce with or without a top-10-ish quarterback. And they’ve proven they can produce alone or together with equal impact.
Why Jefferson and Addison Should Not Be Considered a Top-9 WR Duo
There’s no disputing Jefferson is among the NFL’s best, so his inclusion in this debate is automatic and almost irrespective of his pairing.
But while his partner, Addison, impressed as a rookie, some factors put other tandems higher in the pecking order.
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Addison failed to tally 1,000 receiving yards in 2023 — one of only three other players on this list with that distinction. Addison also finished with fewer receiving yards than his own teammate, with tight end T.J. Hockenson topping him (960).
Additionally, Addison’s 70 receptions, while impressive for a rookie, would’ve ranked ahead of only three players on this list and would’ve also put him behind his own teammate again (Hockenson, 95).
One also has to wonder if Addison’s production was boosted in large part because of Jefferson’s absence over the course of a seven-game stretch and Hockenson missing the final two games of the season.
Furthermore, Addison must continue his ascension in 2024 without the services of Cousins, who operated the offense nearly flawlessly; it’s unlikely that 2024 starter Sam Darnold will provide as many good opportunities.
It’s fair to suggest the Addison-Jefferson duo be inserted into the conversation about the top nine duos in the NFL. But to actually place them in there now means you have to remove one of the tandems.
That’s easier said than done.
The Cincinnati, Miami, and Philadelphia duos are shoo-ins. Respect must be given to what Keenan Allen in Chicago and Evans in Tampa Bay are still doing, so their partners (DJ Moore and Chris Godwin, respectively) have a fairly low bar to surpass.
After that, the discussion begins. There are four spots occupied by strong tandems in Houston, Los Angeles (Rams), San Francisco, and Tennessee.
But if you’re going to open it up for Addison and Jefferson in Minnesota, then why not for the New York Jets’ tandem of Mike Williams and Garrett Wilson, the Detroit duo of Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, and the Seattle combo of Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf?
Yes, Addison and Jefferson are in the conversation. But overcoming the aforementioned objectives, choosing one of the top nine to replace, and distinguishing them over the duos in Detroit, New York (Jets), and Seattle is too much to ask.
