Netflix Did Something Different For Jefferson Than It Did For Cousins

Ep. 3 of Receiver begins with Justin Jefferson driving to the Minnesota Vikings practice facility in Eagan. In an audio overlay, Netflix plays radio hits from reporters speculating whether Jefferson is milking his injury for leverage in contract negotiations. Many believed Jefferson shouldn’t play for the rest of the season because the Vikings failed to extend him in the offseason.

"No one, no one, no one in this game," he said, repeating for emphasis, "can ever tell me to not play or to tank the season or to do any of that other stuff because I'm not that type of person. I want to play. I love the game of football. I want to be the best. In order for that to happen, I've got to be out there on that field. ... There's no prolonging the injury. There's no, 'Oh, he's sitting out because of the contract.’ It's not any of that. At all."

Jefferson injured his hamstring running a route against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 5 last season. He never made contact with a defender, and the injury looked innocuous. Still, it kept him out until Week 13. That meant he missed Minnesota’s seven-point upset win over the San Francisco 49ers, the Green Bay Packers game where Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles, and all four of Joshua Dobbs’ starts before the Week 12 bye.

Still, while Quarterback revealed previously undisclosed injuries for Cousins, it helped improve his image leaguewide. Conversely, Jefferson is one of the most popular players in the NFL. Everyone does the Griddy, and he’s in Madden commercials. People throughout the league perennially saw Cousins as a middling quarterback. A great team could win a Super Bowl with him, but he didn’t drive winning like Jefferson.

Jefferson didn’t need Netflix to improve his image; people love him. He didn’t need Receiver to prove he’s great; he has a perfect Madden rating. Jefferson needed Netflix to show him as “Justin,” the reticent kid who plays video games, and separate that from his “Jets” alter ego. “Justin” loves to loaf around and eat candy at his house; “Jets” throws on expensive jewelry and flashes his grillz.

“Jets” would like the big, expensive contract; “Justin” enjoys eating a $2 Snickers bar. Seeing both sides of Jefferson allows us to understand why he puts effort into not being a diva. It allows us to accept his premise that he plays football for the love of the game, not the $140 million contract he signed in the offseason.

Netflix humanized Cousins as a typical suburban dad. Viewers saw him sit beside the campfire in his backyard with his wife and two children, then load them into a Ford SUV. Conversely, Jefferson removes his jewelry in Receiver and becomes a big kid. During one scene in Ep. 7, he jokes with Kevin O’Connell that he will only return to his office to take his candy.

In Quarterback, Netflix interviews Cousins’ wife, Julie, allowing her to tell us about Cousins as a father and describe their family. In Receiver, Netflix frequently interviews Jefferson’s parents, John and Elaine, who describe him as a son. We learn that John was a great basketball player but never an overbearing sports parent. We see Elaine fret over Jefferson’s lung injury in the Las Vegas Raiders game.

There’s a scene later in Ep. 3 of Receiver where Jefferson descends into a pool at the Vikings facility. It’s reminiscent of a scene in Quarterback, where Cousins enters a cold tub after suffering a previously undisclosed rib injury against the Washington Commanders that he aggravated the following week against the Buffalo Bills.

Like with Jefferson’s rib injury and the lung contusion he suffered against the Raiders in Week 13, we didn’t know how much Cousins was injured. Cousins’ rib injury didn’t appear on the injury report after the Washington game. The storyline of the Buffalo game was that Minnesota had come from behind to win after Jefferson’s miracle catch on fourth-and-18. The public didn’t realize that Bills linebacker Von Miller had reaggravated Cousins’ rib injury during that game.

“I’m pretty beat up,” Cousins explains to the camera in the next scene. “The bruises on my ribs on both sides are not visible. They may come to the surface at some point. When you have pain right here in your midsection, it’s just kind of hard to think about much else.”

Similarly, we didn’t know the extent of Jefferson’s hamstring and lung injuries last year. Netflix humanized Cousins and Jefferson. However, Cousins came away from Quarterback looking like a typical Midwest dad with a superhuman pain tolerance. Meanwhile, Receiver grounded a player whose nickname and video game numbers indicate he’s otherworldly.