The Minnesota Vikings have been working on a contract extension with Justin Jefferson for years and that’s not even an exaggeration. In all reality, there’s no legitimate reason why it hasn’t been completed yet, which is why Justin Jefferson trade rumors continue to sprout up at every turn.
Minnesota Vikings, Justin Jefferson closing in on contract extension
But not to worry, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah told ESPN on Saturday night. Justin Jefferson isn’t going anywhere. I know, I know… we’ve heard that before. But if the Vikings really were even slightly considering the possibility of moving JJ, they sure aren’t showing it.
“Whenever we sign him, we want Justin to have his whole week. You know that friend that has a birthday that takes the month? I think Justin would deserve his whole month if we signed a contract to celebrate it. We’re excited to work towards it. We’re going to keep going. You can’t have all these plans when you talk about all these visions and not talk about the king linchpin, so we’re going to keep working toward that end goal.”
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (via ESPN)
After taking a few days off from negotiations for NFL Draft weekend, the two sides will sit back down this week and look to hammer out a deal and I can’t imagine they would allow direct quotes like these if a deal isn’t extremely, extremely imminent.
Anybody willing to think logically about this situation has been expecting a deal to be signed between Jefferson and the Vikings eventually. Sure, you could find football and financial reasons not to pay JJ the absolutely absurd money that this new deal is going to command (over $30 million per season).
But you cannot make business sense of it, if you are the Wilfs. Because in reality, there really isn’t a brand ambassador an NFL team would rather have than Justin Jefferson, who is an NFL icon, not just a Minnesota Vikings icon.
Across the world, kids are wearing purple and gold jerseys with “Vikings” across the chest. But most of those kids are not wearing those jerseys because of what’s on the front. They’re wearing them because there’s a No. 18 on both sides and “Jefferson” on the back. For that reason alone, $30 million per season is an easy investment.
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