It could be six weeks before Justin Jefferson is back on the field with the Minnesota Vikings, according to a report Saturday from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter says doctors expect Jefferson to miss 4-6 weeks but a key MRI will determine his status at the four week mark, which would be Nov. 5, the same day the Vikings play the Atlanta Falcons.
But Schefter later points out that if the Vikings are floundering Jefferson “will have to ask himself whether a return this season is worth the risk of long-term injury if the Vikings have fallen out of the playoff race.”
Jefferson will miss the next four games — Bears, 49ers, Packers and Falcon — because he’s on injured reserve, which mandates four weeks out of action. If he misses six weeks, he would also be out against the Saints and Broncos before potentially playing in Week 12 against the Bears.
“With hamstrings, I don’t want to speculate on exactly when it will be,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said this week. “But I know he feels pretty good considering where some guys feel at this point in the process, having been [injured] just this past Sunday.
“It’s just going to be about all that entails to go through the process to where he can have some time to start feeling like he can be at full speed again, as explosive as he is, and that will be a process he’ll work through, and hopefully we can get that window opened and we’ll see where he’s at.”
Wide receivers Trishton Jackson and N’Keal Harry have been activated from the practice squad to provide depth behind K.J. Osborn, Jordan Addison and Brandon Powell.
