It’s no secret that the Minnesota Vikings love to throw the ball.
In four years under head coach Kevin O’Connell, they have never finished in the top half of the league in rushing offense. They were 27th in 2022 and 29th in 2023, moving up to 19th last season but scoring just nine rushing touchdowns, fourth-worst in the NFL. Through 10 weeks of 2025, the Vikings sit at 26th.
Coming into the year, the expectation was that things would change. The NFL was placing a premium on running the ball, with many teams pivoting to a two-headed backfield. The Vikings followed suit, acquiring Jordan Mason through a trade with the San Francisco 49ers to try to take some of the load off Aaron Jones following a career high in touches last season.
Minnesota’s aggressiveness paid off when it placed Jones on IR with a hamstring injury in Week 2. Mason took over the backfield duties, immediately putting together a 116-yard, two-touchdown performance in his first action without Jones.
Now that Jones is back in the lineup, Mason has taken a back seat. Aside from Jones suffering an AC joint sprain that kept him out of the end of the Detroit Lions game, Mason has been below a 35% snap share since Jones returned from IR. Last week was a season-low 25%, a massive decline from the 50-50 split the two backs started the season with.
Minnesota brought Mason in to be the bruiser to Jones’ speed. Instead, it’s been a hefty dose of Jones, despite his age and multiple injuries he is nursing. There could be game-script reasons, as the Vikings trailed for most of the Los Angeles Chargers game, and Jones is the preferred pass catcher. But against the Baltimore Ravens, Minnesota’s run game could’ve been more palpable, and Mason had 6.3 yards per carry in his limited action.
Mason does well when given the opportunity. Through the first six games of 2024 (when he was the replacement to Christian McCaffrey), he averaged 5.3 yards per attempt and scored three touchdowns. In four starts this year without Jones, he averaged 4.7 yards and scored four touchdowns.
If the Vikings want to run the ball more effectively, they need to get Mason more involved. Not only will it provide much-needed rest for Jones, but it could provide a spark to a Minnesota running game that has struggled to get going in its last two losses. Mason excels at running between the tackles and turning broken plays into positive gains, and the hope coming into the year was that the two could co-exist and elevate the usually calm Vikings’ rushing attack.
The lack of Mason could be a byproduct of the dearth of runs Minnesota calls. Most of the drives after halftime last Sunday involved a first-down run that picked up over 10 yards, followed by three-straight passing plays that led to a punt, a field goal, or a turnover on downs. Kevin O’Connell’s strength is the passing game, but the ground game was working, and it felt like he abandoned it later in the game.
In fairness, Mason hasn’t been as advertised since coming over from San Francisco. The stats he led in last year, particularly rush yards over expected and yards per attempt, are way down, even when he was getting the bulk of the work with Jones sidelined.
Still, every time Mason has gotten 20 carries or more in a game during his career, he’s run for 100 yards. It might be a lack of opportunity more than a lack of efficiency that’s holding him back, and now that Ryan Kelly is returning to the offensive line, it could be time for Mason to earn his keep.
Jones has also done well with his chances. Before leaving the Lions game, he ran nine times for 78 yards with two catches and 20 yards through the air. Against the Ravens, he ran nine more times for 47 yards and a touchdown while adding three catches for 22 yards. You can’t take Jones off the field, and you certainly don’t want to give one back 20 carries a game, but there’s a balance that the Vikings aren’t using.
Minnesota is 25th in EPA per rush this season, so it has been a struggle to get things going, no matter who’s in the backfield. Kelly’s return should give them a boost, and if the playcalling shows a larger commitment to the run, it will only make the offense more dangerous.
It’s no secret that Jones is at his best with another back by his side, so if the Vikings want to get the most out of him, they need to get Mason more involved.
