LSU Football: Why Justin Jefferson will play in the NFL with a chip on his shoulder

Former LSU football wide receiver Justin Jefferson was selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings.

The 2020 NFL Draft was loaded with talent, which is why LSU’s football’s Justin Jefferson fell all the way to the No. 22 overall pick.

Jefferson was the fifth wide receiver selected in the draft, despite putting up monster numbers for the Tigers in 2019 (111 receptions, 1540 yards and 18 touchdowns).

The main reason Jefferson was the fifth wide receiver picked was because of the perception that he can’t get off the line against press coverage (even though he ran a 4.43 in the 40 yard dash). Jefferson was often wide open at LSU and not in difficult situations (but even when he wasn’t open, he was still good, catching 92.3 percent of his contested targets….best in college football).

So is Jefferson bothered by the fact that he was the fifth wide receiver off the board?

Oh yes. Quite bothered, in fact.

Jefferson said last last month on The Zach Gelb Show that he felt like he was the best wide receiver in the draft.

“I felt like I was the best receiver in this draft class, and being the fifth receiver off the board, it kind of was a shocker”, said Jefferson.

The former LSU star added “every single person that picked a receiver instead of me are going to pay”.

“I’m going to show them that I am the better receiver than the pick that they had.”

I figured Jefferson would be the third wide receiver selected, behind Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb and Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy.

But the NFL is often full of surprises and this year was no exception.

Jefferson didn’t necessarily need any motivation to be great in the NFL, but he’ll absolutely enter his rookie season with a chip on his shoulder.