National Football League

Vikings WR Justin Jefferson: 'I want to be a Hall of Famer'

Published Jun. 24, 2022 7:09 p.m. ET

Minnesota Vikings superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson is already eyeing a gold jacket and a bronze bust with just two NFL seasons under his belt.

While the former first-round pick has already made a name for himself in the league, he said he won't be satisfied until his name is in the record books, more specifically, in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"I mean, I want to accomplish so much," Jefferson said. "It's an endless list that I want to accomplish. At the end of the day, I want to be a Hall of Famer. So, in order to reach that, that position is so much more that I have to accomplish, so much more that I have to set for myself to better myself and really to learn.

"I just can't wait to really just see how far I can really go. This is just the start of my career, and there's just so much more I have to learn, so much more I have to do for myself to really get on that platform of being a Hall of Famer."

Since his debut in 2020, Jefferson leads the league with 3,016 receiving yards — the most receiving yards in a player's first two seasons in NFL history. He has reeled in 67.1% of his passes for an average of 15.4 yards per catch and 17 touchdowns over that same time and has earned over a quarter (27.5%) of all his team's targets.

While the 23-year-old wideout is also the first player to record 1,400-plus yards in each of his first two seasons, and he needs just 1,148 yards this upcoming season to surpass Randy Moss (4,163 yards from 1998-2000) for the most yards in a player's first three seasons.

That should be within reach this season.

"Our offensive style, it's not a run-first offense anymore," Jefferson said recently. "Just us being able to put different people in different positions and distribute the ball, really. I'm so excited in this offense. Us just being in OTAs, learning the plays, going through it with our defense, and stuff. We're all excited. We're all happy to have (Kevin O'Connell). It's definitely a different vibe, a different connection in the building with him there. We're just excited to start it up, really. We want to see how this season really turns out for us."

In 2021, Kirk Cousins and Jefferson generated an 80.7 total EPA — the change in the expected points value from pre-play to post-play — which was the second-highest in the NFL behind only Los Angeles Rams duo Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp (115.0 EPA), per Next Gen Stats.