Exposing Myself For My Biggest NFL Draft Whiffs: Van Jefferson

Exposing Myself For My Biggest NFL Draft Whiffs: Van Jefferson

This one isn’t going to be very fun to talk about. The exposing myself for my biggest NFL Draft whiffs continue and Van Jefferson is the topic for today. I loved Jefferson coming out of Florida, and he’s since turned into a depth roster piece that really doesn’t make much of an impact. Let’s talk about the story and what went wrong.

Let’s start here. Day after day, Jefferson was torching people at the Senior Bowl. It was one of the best wide receiver workouts I can remember at the event. 99% of the time, that translates. In this instance, it did not.

Now let’s circle back to the beginning. Jefferson was part of Ole Miss, but never got playing time ahead of DK Metcalf or AJ Brown. Both of those guys are legit NFL studs. I didn’t view it as a problem that Jefferson didn’t crack the rotation ahead of those guys. Jefferson was so good as a route runner, that I should he had his own window of success that was about to bloom.

Jefferson never put up monster numbers in college and maybe that should have been more of a red flag looking back at things. During that 2020 NFL Draft class, I had Jefferson ranked as WR4. My rankings are far more accurate than what other people had that year. Nobody else had the stones to put Henry Ruggs at WR5. I just should have had Tee Higgins and Michael Pittman both ahead of Jefferson. That part I’m more than willing to take accountability on.

The sad part is, Jefferson has basically been reduced to a blocking wide receiver who maybe snags a handful of catches every year. After posting over 800 yards during his second year in the league, he’s topped just 300 yards in a season just once.

Does Van Jefferson Have Massive Dynasty Fantasy Potential?

What’s the lesson to be learned here? I’m not sure there is one. Maybe it stems from not having enough dog or being physically imposing enough. Maybe he just never proved he was quite good enough in college. On paper, this one should have worked out better than it did. The only real lesson here is probably the fact that only the Chinese Farmer knows all.

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