PHOENIX — This winter, after a season that earned Justin Jefferson NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors, Kevin O'Connell spent hours in his office looking for multiple answers to a single question:
When teams are set on stopping Jefferson, what can the Vikings do about it?
O'Connell calls it "the JJ effect," when opponents abandon typical coverage tendencies in an all-out effort to keep the 23-year-old receiver from beating them downfield. In multiple games last season, the Vikings' pregame scouting reports would chart upcoming opponents playing man coverage a majority of the time; on game day, those same teams would keep two safeties downfield most of the time, or construct double teams to deny Jefferson the ball.