Yahoo Sports fantasy analyst Matt Harmon reacts to the star wide receiver re-signing with the Minnesota Vikings, becoming the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league, and how it affects the contracts of other wideouts in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Video Transcript
Sanity reigns as the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson agree to a $140 million contract over four years with 100 and 10 million guaranteed.
This makes Justin Jefferson obviously the highest paid wide receiver in NFL history.
That was always gonna happen, but more critically, he becomes the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history, cementing his status as a transformative play.
And that’s really the thing here.
I say sanity rains because it was just nauseating that we ever had to deal with any sort of headlines and rumor mongering and, and tweets of like hope might the Vikings trade, Justin Jefferson.
I mean, give me a break when you land on a transformative player like this, you don’t just dangle him around in trade offers just because you’re scared to give him a big contract.
You pay players like this.
When you land on an elite player, you don’t just let him walk out of the door if you’re a well run franchise.
And I think that’s what the Vikings are here.
So he is that good of a player, he’s elite at every part of the position.
I mean, you truly just can’t say enough good things about a player like him who if he continues his current path, he’s gonna end up being a hall of famer.
You, you can find good players throughout the course of the draft at wide receiver.
You can’t find transformers players like that when you do find one, you pay one.
Now, that kind of brings me to my last point here, which is CD Lamb and Brandon Iu, two other players from that 2020 class that are looking for contract extensions at the wide receiver position.
These things do kind of tend to happen like when one domino falls, the next one falls.
We’ve seen that with Devante Smith into Nico Collins into Jalen Waddle, Aman Rasa Brown in there as well.
We, we’ve seen that happening wide receiver this off-season.
Anyways, I think now that Jefferson happens, you know CD Lamb’s people can go to Dallas and say, hey, we want that deal maybe just, maybe just a little bit less.
And if Dallas is smart, if they’re a well run franchise, that’s exactly what they’ll give him.
Same thing in San Francisco with Brandon Auk.
Again, I know you can find useful wide receivers throughout the course of the NFL draft, but you can’t find truly elite, you know, just maybe in Auk’s case, maybe just off the elite tier.
I I think Brandon Ayuko is right there.
You can just find those guys anywhere in the draft.
You can’t just find players that you can build the entire offensive plane around.
That’s what we’re talking about with these wide receivers.
And that’s why if these teams are smart, they’ll pay them.