Vikings’ chemistry test for Justin Jefferson and Sam Darnold getting off to a slow start

BEREA, OHIO – A reporter was asking Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson how he convinces quarterbacks he’s never played with that they just need to trust him when it comes to throwing 50-50 balls in his general direction.

The question wasn’t finished when the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback and 2022 unanimous NFL Offensive Player of the Year smiled and said it all in five simple words.

“Well,” he said, “I can catch them.”

J.J. McCarthy’s season-ending knee surgery on Wednesday was followed by Thursday’s reality that, barring yet another major injury at quarterback, Jefferson’s fifth NFL season definitely will be spent entirely alongside Sam Darnold, a seventh-year veteran and six-year failure as an NFL starter and third overall draft pick.

Jefferson skipped the team’s offseason workouts while ironing out his new contract, so, really, he’s had only about three weeks to develop chemistry with his new quarterback.

“It’s developing, for sure,” Jefferson said Thursday at the end of two joint practices with the Browns.

It also has a long way to go.

The Vikings’ offense was dominated Wednesday in every facet by reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and one of the league’s best units. It had a more respectable day Thursday, but a key three-play segment toward the end of practice was both a good learning experience and a glaring example that Darnold and Jefferson have, understandably so, much work left to be done.

The practice ended with a situational game period. The situation: Down 8 points with a minute left and the ball near midfield.

The Vikings’ second-team offense scored on a short touchdown pass from Nick Mullens to Trishton Jackson, but the two-point conversion pass to Jackson was broken up. The Vikings’ first- and second-team defenses held the Browns out of the end zone with ease.

“Net 3 for 4; we’ll take it,” coach Kevin O’Connell said of this team’s success in those four situations.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, the one failure was Darnold, Jefferson and the struggling first-team offense.

On second down, Darnold launched a wildly overthrown deep ball that Jefferson had no chance of trying to catch in tight coverage near the goal line. On third down, Darnold overthrew Jefferson again on a medium route. On fourth down, Darnold had no one to throw to and chucked up an ugly interception.

Darnold said that fourth down was a good learning experience that he and teammates talked over on the sideline.

“I talked to the tight ends about that,” he said. “Our tight end had an option route and was our checkdown option.”

Instead, the tight end ran a deeper route against a defense that was playing deeper.

“It’s just being able to get the check down and the first down there instead of forcing something,” Darnold said. “Just little things like that we can learn from.”

As for Jefferson’s giant catch radius, Darnold said he’s learning quickly.

“He makes it easier to learn because I can put it dang near anywhere and he’ll be able to come down with the football,” Darnold said. “But, yeah, it’s just about continuing to learn how he moves and how he comes out of a certain break and what to expect when he does. It’s continuing to get used to each other. It’s honestly hard to explain, but it’s just getting a feeling you have with a receiver and knowing where he’s going to be.”

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A reporter told Jefferson he should help Darnold’s trust along by replaying for him the famous one-handed fourth-down catch in Buffalo in 2022.

“I have a whole bunch more contested catches that I can pull up on the film,” Jefferson said. “I’m just coming out here every single day and give it my all. Every single ball that’s in the air, try to catch it. With that, confidence grows.

“I always tell Sam or J.J. or Nick or whoever is in that backfield, just give me an opportunity and I’m going to make your job a little easier.”