Each week we are offering more in-depth breakdowns of some of the top waiver adds of the week. After an injury-plagued waiver wire last week, we see a bit of a different landscape on the wire as we head into Week 4. A player who should be at or near the top of your priority list for this week is Vikings wideout, Justin Jefferson, who just broke out for 7/175/1 in Week 3.

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Player Profile

Jefferson was taken in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft after being a vital piece of the historic LSU offense led by Joe Burrow. As the team’s lead wideout, Jefferson went berserk, posting a final stat line of 111/1,540/18 over 15 games in 2019. His 111 receptions were the most in NCAA while his yardage ranked third. He has everything you want from a prospect at WR, and had he not been part of an insanely deep WR class, he could have easily been the first wideout selected in another draft.

Jefferson offers plus size, length, and speed, running a 4.43-second 40-yard dash at the combine. Not burner-level speed like the Tyreek Hill types of the league, but it’s enough for him to keep a step ahead of a lot of CBs in the league. His elite route-running and ability to be used all over the field makes him a dangerous and versatile weapon that this Vikings offense desperately needs to get going

State of the Offense

The Vikings looked like one of the worst offenses in the league through the first two weeks of the NFL. They accumulated just 95 passing yards in Week 2 alone. They showed more signs of life at home in Week 3 against the Titans, and a big part of that was due to the breakout performance by Justin Jefferson.

The team is at the bottom of the league with just 78 pass attempts (26 p/g) so far and bottom five with only 581 passing yards. To put that into perspective, Jefferson’s 175-yard breakout performance in Week 3 alone accounts for 30% of the team’s passing yards this season. Last season, it was easy to shrug off their low passing volume (third-fewest attempts in the league) due to the high amount of rushing attempts they had (fourth-most in the league). That isn’t the case so far this season as they’re also bottom-10 in rushing attempts so far this season. Their already low volume of offensive plays they called last season has somehow gotten lower this season.

Maybe we can credit it to a slow start. Kirk Cousins got off to a similarly slow start last season, throwing for just 98 yards in Week 1. He had only three TDs and two INTs through the first four weeks of last season as well. He threw multiple TDs in seven of the last 11 games of the season after that, and the team wound up ranking top-10 in total offensive points scored.

Outlook

You can’t talk about the potential Justin Jefferson offers without looking at the void he is filling left by Stefon Diggs. Over the last three seasons, Diggs has been a top-10 wideout in fantasy once while finishing top-12 in PPG twice, running alongside Adam Thielen in a 1A/1B scenario. In 2019, Diggs ranked inside the top-10 in total air yards while ranking first in air yards per target. As I recently found this offseason exploring everything you need to know about advanced metrics at FantasyData, air yards had one of the strongest correlations to final ranks in fantasy over the last three years for wideouts. In Week 3, Jefferson had 5.08 air yards per route run, according to Al Smizzle, which was second-best in the league behind just Calvin Ridley. It’s no coincidence that Jefferson wound up finishing as the overall WR2 in fantasy in Week 3 as well.

Not only is Justin Jefferson slated to fill the air-yard void left by Diggs, but he is a great candidate to take over the target volume as well. There was a lot of hype that we would see more two-TE sets in Minnesota this season and that Irv Smith was a breakout candidate in his own right. That isn’t happening so far, but Jefferson proving his one year of domination at the collegiate level was not a fluke is happening.

Jefferson is owned in just around 30% of Yahoo leagues at the moment. He has the draft pedigree, he has the raw talent, he has a secure role as the WR2 at worst on his offense. He proved in Week 3 that he could perform at the level worthy of WR1 respect in fantasy despite his QB not putting up monster numbers. He has everything you look for in a fantasy wideout worthy of weekly WR2/3 consideration.

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John Ferguson is a featured writer and editor at FantasyPros. For more from John, check out his archive and follow him @FantasyFerguson.