The fact that star receiver Justin Jefferson was suddenly talking about this season in the past tense was hard for him to stomach. The reality of the situation seemed to hit him all at once on Tuesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center.

“I was expecting to come here and have a normal day and get prepared for Philly,” Jefferson said. “That’s definitely tough to process.”

If the Vikings had taken care of business against the Los Angeles Rams, they would be preparing for a divisional round playoff game against the Eagles in Philadelphia. Instead, they were cleaning out their lockers, packing their bags and preparing to go their separate ways.

“Some of these guys know that they might not be back,” Jefferson said. “That’s the most tough part about the league.”

There are currently 23 players on the on the active roster set to become unrestricted free agents, meaning general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell have some tough decisions ahead of them.

What to do with veteran quarterback Sam Darnold is the first domino that needs to fall.

Though most of the fan base has already moved on from Darnold after his late-season implosion that included a 27-9 loss to the Rams on Monday, the Vikings have to decide if they’re actually ready to let him walk out the door after winning 14 regular-season games with him at the helm.

Will the fear of the unknown spark negotiations with Darnold about a possible reunion? Will the appeal of rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy and his potential win out in the end?

The deadline to put a franchise tag on a player is March 4, and the free-agency signing period begins March 12, so those conversations will be had over the next couple of months. Just don’t expect Jefferson to be a part of them.

Asked if he will lend input, Jefferson replied, “It doesn’t really matter to me.”

“It’s not really something that I’m making, like, a big deal about,” Jefferson said. “Whoever they decide to either bring back or to have in this locker room, we’ve got to make it work, and we’ve got to do whatever it takes to get a Super Bowl.”

It’s not much different than the questions Jefferson had to answer in the immediate aftermath of last season. At the time, the Vikings had another tough decision to make, figuring out whether they wanted to commit to former franchise quarterback Kirk Cousins.

“It’s the same type of situation,” Jefferson said. “I didn’t know who my quarterback was going to be and I really didn’t care. I’m confident in myself to go out there and still perform the same way I’ve been performing. It’s not my job to say who’s going to be the quarterback.”

Whether the Vikings are running it back with Darnold, handing the keys over to McCarthy, or signing somebody else to serve as a bridge to the future, there will be high expectations heading into next season.

Especially from Jefferson, who finished second in the NFL with 1,533 receiving yards that included an eye-opening 97-yard touchdown pass from Darnold in the season’s second game, a victory over San Francisco at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Jefferson has been one of the two few receivers in the NFL since joining the league in 2020, with 495 receptions for 7,392 yards and 40 touchdowns, but he has never won a playoff game — or even caught a postseason touchdown — in two tries.

“We’ve got to figure it out,” the receiver said. “I can’t stand to keep going to the playoffs and only playing in a game and being out of it. I want to compete for a Super Bowl. That’s definitely something that I feel everyone in this locker room should want to be a part of.”