The Vikings’ disastrous start to the season just got a lot worse.
Star wide receiver Justin Jefferson will be placed on injured reserve after suffering a hamstring injury in Minnesota’s 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, NFL.com reported.
Jefferson will miss at least the next four games as the Vikings try to dig out from a 1-4 start.
The 24-year-old suffered the injury early in the fourth quarter, slipping on the turf at US Bank Stadium and coming up lame. He finished the game with season-lows in catches (three) and yards (28).
This loss could be catastrophic for a Vikings team that has been on the wrong side of one-score affairs after last year’s incredible luck in such contests.
Minnesota’s four losses have come by a combined 20 points (three, six, four, seven).
Jefferson is undoubtedly the team’s best player, and losing him for roughly one quarter of the season makes a 1-4 hole all the harder to climb out from.
Justin Jefferson is going on injured reserve. APThree of Minnesota’s next four games are on the road before Jefferson is eligible to return, with the Vikings visiting the Bears in Week 6, hosting the undefeated 49ers on “Monday Night Football” in Week 7 and then visiting the Packers and Falcons in the following two weeks.
Even without Jefferson, the Vikings are 2.5-point road favorites at BetMGM against the Bears this week in a battle for last place in the NFC North.
Jefferson has 36 catches for 571 yards and three touchdowns through five games, and the burden will now fall on tight end T.J. Hockenson and receivers K.J. Osborn and Jordan Addison.
His 571 yards rank third behind Tyreek Hill (651) and Puka Nacua (572), respectively.
The Vikings drafted Addison with its first-round pick in this year’s draft, while Hockenson just signed an extension that made him the sport’s highest-paid tight end.
There are questions surrounding whether or not the team could look to trade quarterback Kirk Cousins in the last year of his contract, but the quarterback owns a no-trade clause.
