Photo Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
After signing Aaron Jones, the Minnesota Vikings needed to find a way to reduce their veteran stalwart’s workload. Jones rushed for a career-high 1,138 yards in 2024, on a career-high 306 touches. With running backs having notoriously short shelf lives, that’s not ideal for the 30-year-old Jones.
Minnesota had an opportunity to look to the 2025 draft, where running back is considered one of the deepest positions. They still do, perhaps, but that theoretical back isn’t going to be the No. 2 option. Not after the Vikings sent a 2026 sixth-rounder — one they just got for Ed Ingram — to the San Francisco 49ers for Jordan Mason.
Mason, who turns 26 later this month, seized an opportunity to shine when Christian McCaffrey suffered an early injury. From Weeks 1 through 7, Mason shouldered the load, averaging 95 yards per game on 18 carries with three touchdowns. While the Niners didn’t use him in the passing game much, he still gained 86 yards on 10 catches (12 targets) during that span.
Injuries and McCaffrey’s return diminished his workload through the rest of the season, but by then, he’d shown enough. Mason could carry the load while being counted on to get tough yards against defenses keying in on him.
But as much as say, J.J. McCarthy (or some old dude) should benefit from having a backfield that includes Mason, no one should be happier about this trade than Jones. The lighter workload is one thing, but, more importantly, Mason’s arrival means that Jones gets to only do the things that he excels at.
Jones is great at finding and exploiting the space created by Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson, who each demand attention from defenses. When things get tighter, boxes get stacked against him, and he was placed in have-to-get-it yardage situations, he struggled. Of the 38 running backs who had more than 20 red-zone rushing attempts in 2024, Jones was 35th with 1.8 yards per carry. He fared better in short-yardage situations, but was still middle-of-the-pack, averaging 2.9 yards per carry on rushes with one to three yards to go.
Mason comes to Minnesota with a proven ability to take those things off Jones’ plate. He finished tied for 12th among running backs with 2.9 yards per carry in the red zone last season, and fourth in the NFL with 5.1 yards per carry on downs with one to three yards to convert. In those short-yardage situations, Mason got the first down on 13 of his 23 rushing attempts.
To be fair to Jones, those are the situations where you’re running between the tackles, and your interior offensive line matters more than the tackles. San Francisco had two of the best run-blocking guards in the league, per PFF’s grades, while the Vikings got some of the worst run-blocking from their guards. But Minnesota addressed that need with Will Fries, who showed last year that he can be an elite run-blocker in the middle of the offensive line.
That might not be enough to perfectly duplicate the Niners’ interior line from 2024, but there wasn’t a Jefferson-caliber playmaker to take attention off Mason. Even in the red zone, defenses can’t totally sell out to stop the run without worrying about getting burned out wide. And while Jones is no slouch in the physicality department, Mason is on another level.
While it’s easy to draw a parallel to the Detroit Lions’ “Thunder and Lightning” situation with the punishing David Montgomery and explosive Jahmyr Gibbs, that’s not quite what the Vikings have in Jones and Mason. Their skillsets overlap a bit more than that, with both players capable of making explosive runs. While Jones has the inside edge to be the starter, it’s easy to see either becoming the lead back with the other settling into a more situational role.
Again, that bodes very well for Jones, who can turn in an excellent season regardless of where he falls in the pecking order. He can continue to dice lighter boxes on first and second downs in a lead back role, or he can be an elite pass-catching safety valve for McCarthy on third downs. Either route goes a long way to both keeping Jones fresh throughout the season and having him stick to the things he does best.
Having Jones play more exclusively to his strengths should have ripple effects on the rest of the offense as well. Kevin O’Connell‘s tenure in Minnesota has been plagued by abandoning the run for stretches, in part thanks to personnel that wasn’t well-suited to running between the tackles. Mason can handle that role now, with Fries paving the way. O’Connell may still backslide into his old habits, but at least he has no excuse to ditch the run anymore.
It also gives McCarthy yet another layer of insulation against the harsh realities of being a de facto rookie quarterback. If Jones (or Mason, for that matter) isn’t going that day, or gets injured, things don’t instantly all fall onto the 22-year-old’s shoulders. There are other options, and the ability to choose the best one for the situation.
In all likelihood, Jones won’t touch the ball 300 times again, but that’s a feature, not a bug. The Vikings might have paid a premium for their two backs, but it’s worth the price if they are able to complement each other while being capable of assuming the bulk of the workload whenever needed. The Vikings escaped a potential doomsday scenario at running back at the start of free agency and found their way into an ideal one.
