Justin Jefferson on Wild Card controversy: “It needs to change”

The Minnesota Vikings finished the 2024 NFL season with a 14-3 record, the second-best record in the NFC, and second in the NFC North behind the 15-2 Detroit Lions. But despite their spectacular season, they were still forced to play a Wild Card game on the road in the first round of the playoffs due to current NFL playoff seeding rules.

Justin Jefferson doesn’t hold back on NFL’s playoff format

Those rules, which order teams based on their placement within their divisions, placed the Vikings at No. 5 in the NFC, behind two teams with worse records than them. So instead of notching home-field advantage, the Vikings had to play the Los Angeles Rams - a10-7 team - on the road, ultimately losing the game.

Vikings star wide receiver Justin Jefferson has now voiced his frustration, calling on the league to reconsider how playoff home-field advantage is determined. While he admits the Vikings missed their shot to secure the No. 1 seed in the final week when they faced the Lions, he believes that teams with top-tier records shouldn’t be punished by current seeding rules.

“With the season that we had last year, to go and play away, it definitely was a little different,” aid Jefferson in an interview with Yahoo Sports. “It definitely needs to go into consideration and something that we need to figure out because having 14 wins... normally doesn’t go to play away in the playoffs,” Jefferson said.

“We definitely had the opportunity to play home field with the last game in Detroit, but even losing that, we still felt like we should’ve had home-field advantage,” he went on. “But even not having home-field advantage is never an excuse. It’s something we had to deal with and we wish we would’ve had home field but it is what it is.”

As the Vikings prepare for 2025 under new quarterback J.J. McCarthy, Jefferson remains a vocal leader and key to their success.

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