The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings are two teams that appear to be heading in opposite directions. The Bears have won six of their past seven games and are tied for first place in the NFC North. The Vikings have lost three of their past four games and are trying to keep their playoff hopes alive.
It creates quite the storyline for when the Bears travel to Minneapolis on Sunday to avenge their season-opening loss. But even if the Vikings are down, it’s a bad time to run into Justin Jefferson.
Jefferson has been one of the top targets in the NFL since entering the league in 2020, and he remains the focus of every defensive coordinator when the Vikings come up on the schedule. While Jefferson is having a down year by his standards with just 51 catches for 686 yards and two touchdowns on the season, Sunday could be an awful time to cross paths.
The proof may be on Jefferson’s Instagram story where he posted the clip of him making a one-handed catch during a 2022 game against the Buffalo Bills. While this may appear to be celebrating the three-year anniversary of the play, it’s the caption that should have the Bears’ attention.
“I need to get back to year3 Jets,” Jefferson wrote.
Bears Secondary in Trouble as Justin Jefferson Looks to Return to “Year 3” Form
The mere presence of Jefferson should be enough to worry Bears fans. Chicago has been playing a “bend but don’t break” style of defense this season, ranking 28th in scoring defense at 27.4 points per game, and their cornerback situation has been a big problem.
With Nahshon Wright and Tyrique Stevenson part of a defense that allowed Theo Johnson (seven catches, 75 yards) and Darius Slayton (four catches, 89 yards) to have big games in a win over the New York Giants, the Bears' secondary is a problem – especially if Jefferson channels what he’s trying to tap into.
“Year 3 Jets” refers to his 2022 season. The Vikings went 13-4 and won the NFC North that year, and Jefferson was the main catalyst. With 128 catches for 1,809 yards and eight touchdowns, Jefferson was just shy of winning the NFL’s triple crown for receiving and was the Associated Press’s Offensive Player of the Year.
When speaking to reporters on Thursday, Jefferson took it a step further, telling ESPN’s Kevin Seifert he “wants to get back to his ‘savage’ and ‘f*** it’ mode” from the 2022 season before elaborating more to the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling.
“I’m just going out there with that effort mentality and just going out there and just killing it, and not worrying about the plays, not worrying about anything else that I just can’t control,” Jefferson said.
Of course, getting the ball from McCarthy, who has an on-target rate of 58.1% according to Pro Football Reference, is a thing he can’t control. But Jefferson is clearly motivated to dominate whichever team crosses his path.
With a struggling secondary, the Bears could be the wrong team, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. That could make their efforts to defeat the Vikings and keep them at arm’s length in the NFC playoff picture a little more difficult on Sunday afternoon.