Retool or Rebuild for 2022?

On one hand, Vikings fans could be worried that if they stick with Cousins long term, he won’t be aggressive enough to lean into Jefferson’s talents and the receiver will grow disenchanted. He was given 20 fewer contested catch opportunities last year than the NFL leader despite 37 more total targets, per PFF.

Another way of looking at it is: If the Vikings move on from Cousins and draft a quarterback who turns out to be a bust, Jefferson will be even more irritated.

Nobody can blame Vikings followers for living in a constant state of waiting for the other shoe to drop. The recent history of elite receivers, Moss and Diggs, has seen them both exit under less than ideal circumstances.

But that conversation shouldn’t be happening right now.

First, Jefferson is on his rookie contract. If we include the fifth-year option in the equation, he will be a Viking until at least 2024. With new CBA rules that make it extremely difficult for players to hold out, the only way out of town would be to pull an Odell Beckham or Jamal Adams in which the noise about the player’s unhappiness becomes so loud the team has to make a move.

We aren’t anywhere close to that. Jefferson just set the record for the most yards by a receiver in his first two years and — despite room to grow the number — he finished fourth in the NFL in targets. The team is not in a position where it’s Super Bowl or Force A Trade.

That doesn’t mean that, in a world of player empowerment, Jefferson is too Minnesota nice to someday demand to play with Patrick Mahomes but the Vikings have time to start heading in the right direction before they reach get-me-out-of-here mode.

The QB decision and Jefferson’s target numbers will be at the center of discussion but they only be determining factors of his happiness if the team isn’t going anywhere in the next few seasons.

What do recent forced exits by young, gifted players have in common? Diggs knew the Vikings missed their chance in 2019 and were about to lose a bunch of players and suffer a setback. Beckham was aware the Browns weren’t going to the Super Bowl with Baker Mayfield. Adams was running away from a brutal Jets organization at warp speed. Julio Jones said that he wanted to go somewhere to win when he asked out of Atlanta.

Winning teams haven’t had this issue. Diggs’ targets went down in Buffalo from 2020 to 2021 without any drama. Beckham didn’t reach double digit targets in Los Angeles until the NFC Championship game. Cincinnati’s Tyler Boyd sunk from 108 targets last year to just 88 this season. I’ve yet to spot him campaigning to be relocated.

If the Vikings get their rebuild — err, retool, readjustment, reposition, reworking — right over the next two years and win games on the back of a complete team, they will end up with Jefferson spending a long, long time in Minnesota.

We have seen the difference in player attitudes between winning and losing seasons in recent years with the Vikings. After 2017, Eric Kendricks, Diggs and Danielle Hunter all took team-friendly deals. By 2021, the Vikings paid full price for everyone, giving Dalvin Cook and Harrison Smith top-of-the-market deals and spending $10 million on Patrick Peterson when other veteran corners got less around the league.

Jefferson won’t be any different. What the Vikings’ new front office has to figure out is the best way to get back to that place where players believe Minnesota is a place they can win. That starts with a pending quarterback decision. If Jefferson truly loves Cousins but the team improves because of it, he’ll forgive them and talk earnestly next year about how he loves the new QB.