Justin Jefferson Signs Historic $140M NFL Deal with Vikings

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00:00The wide receiver market in the National Football League has forever been reset.

00:05The breaking news that came down the wire just about five minutes ago out of Minneapolis,

00:11the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson have agreed to a contract extension to the tune of a

00:17four-year deal worth $140 million. Justin Jefferson becomes the highest paid wide receiver

00:26in the history of the National Football League. In fact, Justin Jefferson becomes the highest paid

00:31non-quarterback in the history of the National Football League at an average annual value of

00:38$35 million with a 110 mil guarantee. Donnie, we discussed this last week about where the wide

00:48receiver market was trending in the National Football League and you and I said something

00:53very similar. When you look at Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, maybe even CeeDee Lamb at a certain

00:58point this offseason in these summer months, we expected a wide out to make nearly $35 million

01:05per year and that's what Justin Jefferson and the Minnesota Vikings have done.

01:10Yeah and by the way, congratulations to these teams out here. The teams that have signed

01:14Justin Jefferson, Jalen Waddell, Nico Collins, Aminara St. Brown, AJ Brown, Devante Smith,

01:18Jerry Judy and Michael Pittman. And you might say to yourself right now, why does that make

01:22sense Donnie? Why are you cheering that on? Because the other teams that are on the outside,

01:27the Dallas Cowboys with CeeDee Lamb, seized that contract. I don't care what was going on inside

01:32of what you thought that building was going to be for his contract, that bar just got reset. Jamar

01:36Chase, Brandon Ayuk, Omari Cooper, Tee Higgins, all now look at that contract and change their

01:41negotiations, which good for them, terrible for those organizations. And again, you're talking

01:48about money going up, like in three years we're going to probably look at this Justin Jefferson

01:52deal, like they got to renegotiate that. That's a terrible deal. He's the 11th paid or highest paid

01:56wide receiver in football. That's what happens here. When the market sets it, the next guy is

02:00probably going to get more. Now granted, you're talking about maybe the best wide receiver in the

02:04game in Justin Jefferson. And how did we get here too? Did you actually think Justin Jefferson was

02:10going to move on from Kirk Cousins to a rookie quarterback and put his money on the line where

02:14they can come back to him and say like, hey kid, we love you, but you only had 68 catches last year

02:19for 1,200 yards and six touchdowns. He goes, I had a rookie quarterback. You're lucky I actually

02:23did that. So you know how you treat your superstar players? Kid, we love you. We think you're the best

02:28player in football. Their general manager in the off season said, we understand he's going to be

02:32the highest paid player in his position in the history of the sport. We're going to take care

02:36of him. Drafting a rookie quarterback, then taking care of your superstar player. This is how winning

02:41organizations handle their business. If your player is good, treat him with respect and pay

02:46him as what he's worth. Way to go, Minnesota. That contract in a couple years, probably going

02:50to be a bargain. He's going to be happy. You're going to get good football now. DRS, you said maybe

02:56the best receiver in the National Football League, arguably the best. I think without a doubt, Justin

03:00Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the NFL. He only played in 10 games last year, starting

03:06nine of them due to injuries. And he still, for a fourth consecutive season, all four of his years

03:12in the National Football League, had more than a thousand yards and five touchdowns. He started

03:18off the first three weeks of last year with a healthy Kirk Cousins, having at least 150 yards

03:23or nearly 150 yards receiving in all three games. He is a game breaker. He is a game changer and now

03:31paid as such the highest paid receiver in the history of the National Football League at 35

03:38mil per year annually for a year with 140 million in total for the contract extension with 110 mil

03:46guaranteed. Rightfully so. I expected Justin Jefferson to be the guy to reset the wide

03:52receiver market. If there was one, I thought it was either Jefferson or Jamar Chase that would

03:57receive 35 million dollars annually. And Justin Jefferson is that guy. Good on Kweisi Adolfo

04:04Mensah, the general manager in the Twin Cities, who further reporting from ESPN's Adam Schefter,

04:09multiple teams inquired around the NFL about Justin Jefferson. Could they make a deal for him

04:15at a point this offseason? And as soon as they called, Minnesota said nope and hung up. They

04:20were dead set on paying Justin Jefferson, even with a rookie quarterback. And so further people

04:26celebrating not just JJ and his agents, but JJ McCarthy, the 10th overall pick, of course,

04:33by the Minnesota Vikings because he has a number one wide receiver to start the National Football

04:38League with. Yes, and that's exactly the foot you wanted to start off on. Not a holdout going into

04:44training camp when you want your young wide receiver and your young quarterback to play

04:48with each other and get those valuable reps here and also keeping that player happy. How destructive

04:52that locker room would have been if he just showed up for game number one and realized like, you know

04:56what, I'm not getting paid here. I'm just gonna get paid here or just I'm not gonna get I'm gonna

05:00show up. It's just because I don't want to get fined at this point and we'll see if we can get

05:03these negotiations next year. I love where this is going, but also these other wide receivers out

05:07here are going to absolutely break the bank before training camp. And those team owners,

05:12they're going to wish they signed those players earlier, Ben. Big money coming to the wide

05:16receivers in the National Football League. More on the Overline next.

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