Justin Jefferson: It's a joy to see Kirk Cousins take over as a leader

Published November 12, 2026 10:26 PM Kirk Cousins is back in Minnesota, and perhaps no one is more excited about that than Justin Jefferson.The wide receiver had career highs in catches (128) and yards (1,809) and earned the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year award in Cousins’ last full season with the Vikings in 2022.Jefferson, though, said he has “no expectations.”“It’s really just going out there and just executing our plays,” Jefferson said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “It’s not really getting too juiced up about him being here or anybody being back there. It’s just all about understanding the plays that are being called, understanding the jobs that we have and executing our responsibilities. And just the plays that are there, and the plays that could be made, we just need to continue to just make those type of plays. And I’m pretty sure that the results would be a lot better. “He just understands the game. He’s a guy that studies the game a lot. He understands how the defenses play, especially covering me. And he understands, the plays that we have called that are kind of my plays and he understands the timing and the windows to throw those type of plays, but he also doesn’t force those type of plays to me and he just lets the game come to me.”Jefferson said it was “a joy to hear [Cousins] just take over and be a leader in the meeting room, on the field.”“He’s being vocal,” Jefferson said. “Just making sure that everybody hears the plays that he’s talking about and the notes that he has for certain routes, certain plays. And he’s just making sure that everybody’s on the same page. So it’s definitely cool to hear that type of leadership and command. If you know Kirk, that’s pretty normal from him. So it’s definitely kind of cool him being back in that room and him taking that control.”