The Vikings have every reason to be careful with Aaron Jones Sr. right out of the gate.
Minnesota kept the veteran back in place for the 2026 NFL season after he accepted a sizable pay cut, dropping from a $9 million base salary to $5.5 million. He still sits atop the depth chart as the team’s RB1, but the bigger question is how much the Vikings should ask him to carry early on.
Jones is 31 and his body has taken plenty of hits. Since coming into the league as a fifth-round pick by the Packers in the 2017 NFL Draft, he has missed at least one game in every season except three.
He ended last year sidelined for the finale against Green Bay with a hip issue, and Jordan Mason, Ty Chandler and Zavier Scott handled the load in the 16-3 win at U.S. Bank Stadium.
That kind of history makes the case for caution pretty straightforward. Jones can still bring value as a runner and as a pass-catching threat, but the injury list is long enough to make a heavy workload feel like a risk, even as soon as Week 1. Since 2020 alone, hip, knee and calf injuries have knocked him out, while shoulder, hamstring, knee and calf problems left him questionable for 14 other games.
The Vikings’ backfield picture has changed, too. Chandler and Scott are gone, which leaves Minnesota leaning on Mason and rookie Demond Claiborne to help keep Jones from getting overworked. That part matters, because Jones already logged 366 offensive snaps in 12 games last season after playing 700 in his first year with Minnesota in 2024.
There’s no doubt the Vikings want him on the field. The issue is how to keep him there.
Jones has played 4,442 offensive snaps across 126 games, an average of 35.3 per game since entering the league. Minnesota would probably be better served trimming that closer to 20 snaps a game, which would land him around 340 for the season.
That approach would let the Vikings preserve Jones while still giving Mason work and finding out what Claiborne can offer.
Minnesota also added another layer of insurance on Wednesday by signing DeeJay Dallas to the practice squad. If the team needs help later in the year, he could be elevated.
Dallas, a fourth-round pick of the Seahawks in 2020, has also spent time with Arizona, Carolina and Jacksonville. In 84 games, he has carried 124 times for 538 yards and four touchdowns.
For the Vikings, the message is clear: don’t burn through the running backs too early. With Jones’ age and injury history, Kevin O’Connell would be wise to lean on a rotation and keep the room as fresh as possible.
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