• A lot of ink will be spilled and airwaves filled with receiver contract negotiations in the coming weeks, and there are none bigger than those involving the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson. So let’s start with the obvious. He wasn’t at the team facility Monday, and that was expected. He also missed a chunk of last year’s OTAs to train in Miami. He said, at the time, it was to pursue endorsement opportunities.
But he also conceded to me, when we talked about it last summer, that the life-changing second contract he had coming would fulfill “a dream of mine. It’s been a dream since I was 7 years old.”
Jefferson has certainly been patient with that dream, playing last year without a new contract, and going through this offseason without one while Detroit Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown got paid and A.J. Brown got contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. And those two deals are benchmarks moving forward. St. Brown’s deal was advertised at $28 million per year, while Brown’s contract was at $32 million annually. And what’s most interesting about their deals is how quickly the money comes.
Brown’s due $80 million over the first three years of his revised contract, which is a nice bump over the $68 million he’d previously been owed for that period of time. And St. Brown landed $63.386 million over the first three years of his new deal. He’d been owed $3.366 million in the final year of his rookie deal, which means he’s getting $60 million in new money for the two new years.
Because Jefferson is also going into the final year of a rookie contract, the St. Brown deal is easier to apply to his situation. And since Jefferson is owed $19.743 million on his fifth-year option, the apples-to-apples equivalent of his deal to St. Brown would bring him about $80 million over the next three years. Give him the bump for—all due respect to St. Brown—being a better player, and waiting an extra year … do you go to $90 million over the next three years? Or $100 million?
Two years ago, Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs and Brown all did deals with guarantees in the high $60 million- to low $70-million range over their first three years. Going to $90-$100 million, of course, would be quite a jump. Then, again, Jefferson is quite a player.
And, of course, if he signs before CeeDee Lamb, Brandon Aiyuk and Tee Higgins, you can expect the price tag on those guys to rise a bunch, too.
