Vikings Film Room: Justin Jefferson is getting the ball in unique ways, creating potential evolution in Kevin O’Connell’s offense
The journey of a play-caller is different in every situation, but there are some interesting things that Kevin O’Connell is doing.
One of the more frustrating parts of the Minnesota Vikings‘ offense in 2025 was the lack of involvement for wide receiver Justin Jefferson. It wasn’t due to a lack of effort to get him the football, as head coach Kevin O’Connell worked hard to find creative ways to make that happen.
Unfortunately, Jefferson didn’t produce as much as we would have hoped. He posted lows in multiple categories.
- 141 targets
- 84 receptions
- 1,048 yards
- 2 touchdowns
The disparity between Jefferson’s targets and receptions is pretty stark, and it’s mainly due to a 28% off target rate from J.J. McCarthy last season. Right out of the gate, O’Connell made sure they fixed that quickly.
Kevin O’Connell is getting Justin Jefferson involved
One of the easiest ways to get your start wide receiver involved is to get him the ball in easy ways. Screens and designed short passes are usually easy ways to get it done. O’Connell hasn’t used these concepts very often within his offense, rather prioritizing vertical shot plays instead. There is merit with that strategy, but it can prevent Jefferson from touching the football.
Against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon, O’Connell made Jefferson a priority, getting him multiple screens and short passes. One concept that he used multiple times was getting him running an arrow route into the flat on split-flow action.
The Vikings have been using variations of this concept for years, even before O’Connell got to Minnesota. It’s usually a fullback or tight end getting the reception in the flat, but using Jefferson as the split-flow player makes a lot of sense. It’s an easy pitch and catch to make it happen, plus you can have this in your bag from multiple different formations.
Later on in the game, the Vikings ran the same play, with Jefferson getting a touchdown this time.
Being able to use the same play in the same way isn’t something you can usually do within the same quarter, unless it’s a run play. O’Connell having confidence to call the same thing in the same area ended up paying off for him.
Here’s where this can get really interesting. With O’Connell putting this on film twice, teams will be keying in on it moving forward. That in itself begs the question: what counterpunches will O’Connell have ready to go? Will he leak out the tigh end into the corner with the safety potentially keying in on Jefferson? What about a throwback screen?
This is where things get really interesting within the context of a play caller. Evolution is huge, and this is going to be one key element to watch moving forward.
It could get the Vikings a touchdown in the red zone, an area O’Connell’s offenses have struggled with.
