Four wide receivers — that’s how many were taken before a team landed on Justin Jefferson in the 2020 NFL draft.
The Vikings selected Jefferson with the No. 22 pick. The rest is history. Jefferson had 1,400 receiving yards and seven touchdown receptions. He also broke several rookie records.
Jefferson recently talked about his draft position with NFL Network’s Steve Wyche and Jim Trotter on the Huddle & Flow podcast. Here’s what he said (H/T NFL.com’s Jeremy Bergman):
“I kept a chip on my shoulder, if you want to say that,” Jefferson said, via NFL.com. “I just felt like I was one of the top receivers, especially off of the performance I did with the national championship, having over 1,500 yards, having 18 touchdowns. So being the fifth receiver picked up, I felt that was disrespectful on their part.”
Henry Ruggs III, Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb and Jalen Reagor were the wide receivers taken before Jefferson. Some of them, Jeudy and Lamb especially, played well at times in their first NFL season. But none had a year quite like Jefferson did.
