Just A Reminder
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here”
Shakespeare
He deserves better.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
—George Orwell
😂😂 This will get you jacked for the return of Jets, lol....
Justin Jefferson’s greatness shows in the highlights.
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) September 8, 2026
But what makes him different? What separates 18 in the eyes of WR coach Keenan McCardell?
Step inside the Vikings’ position room for a one-of-one film session:https://t.co/du1iXn4ITx
What makes Justin Jefferson elite? An inside look with Vikings WR coach Keenan McCardell
Justin Jefferson of the Vikings is one of the NFL's best wide receivers, but what makes him great? His wide receivers coach goes to the film to explain. Elsa / Getty Images
By Alec Lewis
Sept. 8, 2026 Updated 6:22 am PDT
EAGAN, Minn. — The film pauses, and Keenan McCardell uses a green laser pointer to circle a New Orleans Saints defender on the projector in front of him.
“At the time,” McCardell says, “this was a matchup.”
It’s the week before the 2026 season, and McCardell, the Minnesota Vikings’ wide receivers coach, is acing the assignment. I want to know what impresses him most about superstar receiver Justin Jefferson, his longtime pupil. What clips would he, a two-time Pro Bowler for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, show to introduce Jefferson’s exceptionalism to the average fan?
He has been going for more than 15 minutes. But now he is spotlighting former Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore from a 2022 game in London.
“He doesn’t ever talk about these matchups,” I say.
“We don’t talk about them,” McCardell says. “Ever.”
Why?
“They’re just X’s,” McCardell says. “I never talk about them. In my room, it’s never, ‘All right, you’re facing such and such.’”
Once more, McCardell outlines Lattimore on the screen with his laser pointer.
“Look at his technique,” McCardell says. “Beat his technique. Counter his technique. Don’t give them power. You’ve got the power.”
Did you learn that somewhere?
“That’s just how I played,” McCardell says. “It’s just how we go about it. Growing up, being a receiver, I always felt like I was in control of where I put the defensive back. I always used to say, ‘I can put the DB wherever I need him to be so that I can get open.’ That was my mindset. If you’re a dominant receiver, dominant route runner, that’s the mindset you’ve got to have.”
He’s standing up inside the Vikings’ receivers room, cosplaying his former career. He crouches. His eyes squint, almost as if he’s transported to a different time.
“If the guy has inside leverage,” McCardell says, “I’ve got to take it away from him. Because that’s where we need to go. And that’s where we’re going to go. Some way, somehow. That’s how we talk in this room. I don’t care who we’re playing. It can be anybody. That’s how it was.”
He returns to his spot sitting atop a desk and eyes the screen once more.
“For Justin, that’s how it is.”
McCardell begins with a 2021 matchup with the Detroit Lions. He wants to start with Jefferson’s route-running creativity.
Because McCardell himself went from being a 12th-round pick to a 16-year NFL veteran — and because his savvy helped him overcome subpar speed — fluidity and suddenness inform his receiver evaluations.
“When I’m watching a guy, it’s always, ‘Is he fluid? Or is he tight?’” McCardell says. “Everything about what Justin does is really super fluid.”
Jefferson flows up the field with a trademark naturalness. McCardell compares Jefferson’s movements to rippling water. At times, McCardell feels it’s his job to give Jefferson guardrails. There is a balance between Jefferson’s playground style and the requirements of a detailed offense built on rhythm and timing.
McCardell pinpoints a crossing route. Here, against the Lions, Jefferson displaces the cornerback off the line of scrimmage. Rather than immediately running toward his destination on the opposite side of the field, Jefferson jabs at the defender to create even more separation.
Is that something he has to do?
McCardell’s mouth peels, a wry smile forming. This is where artistry intersects with convention. Sometimes, allowing someone to bend the rules is necessary to provide them with a platform to showcase their fullest self.
“Like, this is part of who he is,” McCardell says. “A lot of times, on a certain route, I don’t need too much of the sauce. I tell him, ‘Leave the Tabasco where it’s at.”
I’m sure there is a balance with that.
“Oh, yeah,” McCardell says. “A real good balance. I didn’t have his speed, so I was always trying to get to a spot. With him, he has the speed and the sauce. He thinks he needs to nod this guy, which is a little extra, but it also creates more space, so I understand why he did it.”
Justin Jefferson is ELITE.
His route running is a work of art.@JJettas2 | @Vikings pic.twitter.com/2yl8eweRO3
— NFL UK & Ireland (@NFLUKIRE) May 4, 2021
The day after a game, McCardell and Jefferson talk through these intricacies with the rest of the Vikings receivers. In fact, on this specific play, Jefferson notices tight end Tyler Conklin struggling to push vertically, so he adjusts his route to an area that allows for more space.
These explanations, packed with insight, offer an invaluable perspective for young players questioning their own thought processes.
The next clip blips onto the screen, and it’s another Jefferson highlight versus the Lions.
This time, Jefferson leaks past the secondary. Former Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins hurls a deep ball toward Jefferson in double coverage, and McCardell stops the play. The laser hovers over two Detroit defensive backs in Jefferson’s vicinity.
“Down the field,” McCardell says, “we’re better than these guys at tracking the ball. This is what we do for a living. When we get a ball like this, it should be a catch 80 percent of the time.”
The play continues. Jefferson leaps and snatches the football.
It just seems like …
McCardell interjects. Whether he knows the jarring biometrics behind Jefferson’s eye dominance is beside the point.
“His tracking ability is wild.”
… he almost always comes down with these.
“People don’t realize how long he is as a player, either,” McCardell says. “He’s got long arms. He’s taller than you think.”
Minnesota’s offensive staffers use Jefferson to their advantage. For example, most receivers travel 12 to 14 yards on seven-step concepts, but Jefferson’s stride length can take him farther up the field. This adds to his deceptiveness. Cornerbacks often have less time to react than they think they do.
Jefferson’s jump off the line of scrimmage introduces even further panic. Some receivers go through the motions when they’re facing cornerbacks who aren’t pressed up near them at the line of scrimmage. Jefferson sprints after the snap and peels away from defenders with precision.
These are all links in a special chain that get attention only if the receiver makes the catch. And Jefferson usually does, including on this highlight McCardell is now revisiting: the fourth-and-18 snag from 2022 at the Buffalo Bills.
First, McCardell identifies himself on the sideline, jumping when Cousins lobs the ball downfield. Then, he slows the video. Jefferson springs and extends his arm. He palms the ball with one hand, then plucks it away from a defender on the way down.
“When he pulled it down, it was, like, ‘All right, we’re in this thing. He’s on one right now. He’s on a heater,’” McCardell says.
McCardell slaps the wooden desk beside him for effect.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re on the practice squad.” (Bang.)
“It doesn’t matter if you’re the fourth guy on the depth chart.” (Bang.)
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Justin Jefferson.” (Bang. Bang. Bang.)
“This room is open to say poodle to the best player in the room. It’s open to say this to the worst player in the room. It’s always been that way. As a player, if I don’t have respect for the guy playing next to me, knowing he’s going to do his job, then it’s a problem.”
Poodle?
“That’s what we say when you turn down a block,” McCardell says. “Poodle. You’re fluffing up like a poodle. This wouldn’t have been a poodle moment.”
His eyes are on the screen as Jefferson scoots in from his outside receiver position and launches into a block with his shoulder against a Green Bay Packers cornerback. McCardell loves Jefferson’s willingness to stick his face in the fan. He sees it as part of the job description.
You get paid handsomely, McCardell says, for doing things others don’t do. Slithering down the field warrants compensation. Snagging passes over defenders’ helmets does, too. But the top-of-the-market money, in his mind, comes with an awareness and acknowledgment of the duties you must carry out for the betterment of the team.
The film transitions to another play from the 2022 win in Buffalo. Before “the catch,” Jefferson sealed a block that sprung running back Dalvin Cook for an 81-yard touchdown.
.@DalvinCook goes 81 YARDS!!!
📺: #MINvsBUF on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/uRjde5F169 pic.twitter.com/tgrxWAvaHz
— NFL (@NFL) November 13, 2022
“Nobody remembers this,” McCardell says. “But see what it did? I ask him all the time: ‘Can you do it in the run game, where a lot of people (won’t get their hands dirty)? Can you be a complete guy? Do you want all the smoke?’”
Neither Jefferson nor fellow wideout Jordan Addison has much of a choice. The last thing they want to hear from a teammate — who’d be allowed to blurt it out without repercussion — is “poodle.”
If McCardell hadn’t agreed to attend the Minnesota State Fair with his family, he could sit here and watch plays all afternoon.
He pauses another play from 2022 against the Saints to draw attention to how Jefferson purposely angles his route to make it easier to catch the ball over his shoulder. He replays a 2023 catch against the Lions, over and over, to gush about Jefferson’s fearlessness over the middle. He nods at another that displays Jefferson’s sneaky run-after-catch effectiveness, galloping forward for 25 yards through contact in 2024 against the Packers.
“Another thing,” he says, “and then I’m going to let you go …”
Five minutes later, McCardell stands at the door, looking for another play to sum up Jefferson’s strengths.
Capturing greatness takes time.
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