Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson made a long-awaited return to practice on Monday.
Jefferson hurt his hamstring on the second day of training camp and remained on the sideline until taking his first steps back on the field to kick off the week. After the session was over, Jefferson said that he’s “glad that I’m feeling great again” and that he’s set a “target” of Week 1 to get back to 100 percent.
Part of that process has been looking into why he’s had hamstring issues — he missed seven games in 2023 — and what he can do to make sure they don’t hinder him in the future.
“To be honest, what I got from it is I’m different than a lot of other people,” Jefferson said in a press conference. “The way I move, the way my body is positioned, the way I cut, the way I do everything is kind of different than what everyone else does. In different positions, I might put a little bit more stress on my body than a normal typical person would so it’s just putting my body in different positions and strengthening out those positions. It is kind of weird and it is kind of difficult to really explain, but, to be honest, just putting my body in difficult positions to withstand coming out here and being in those difficult positions.”
The Vikings were able to be cautious with Jefferson’s return because of the timing of his injury. It will be harder to take a similar approach to any recurrence during the season, so the Vikings and Jefferson will be hoping that the lessons they learned this month are put to good use.
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