The Minnesota Vikings spent the offseason trying to fix their ground game, but seven games in, the problem still hasn’t gone away. Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason haven’t found steady success running the ball, and with the Nov. 10 trade deadline getting closer, the chatter around possible help keeps growing.
A lot of fans have their eyes on Jonathan Taylor as the obvious answer in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts. But if Minnesota is trying to keep one eye on the present and another on the future, the sting gets a little sharper when you look at rookie Emmett Johnson.
Johnson, a Kansas City Chiefs rookie, is starting to look like the kind of back the Vikings could use right now. He had just one carry for 15 yards in Kansas City’s loss to the Denver Broncos, but that run turned heads because he broke multiple tackles on the way to the gain. He also caught five passes for 128 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown.
The numbers on the ground still don’t jump off the page - 20 carries for 77 yards - but Johnson is averaging 9.2 yards on 34 touches this season. He hasn’t fumbled, and his role is growing because he’s holding up in pass protection.
“We knew he could run the ball, but the thing we had to see was the pass protection,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said at the end of the preseason. “For him to be that No. 2 back, you’ve gotta be able to do that.”
That’s where the Vikings’ regret starts to set in. Johnson’s profile suggested he could do more than just carry the ball. At Nebraska last year, he ran for 1,451 yards and 12 touchdowns as a starter and added 46 catches for 370 yards and three touchdowns.
Minnesota instead went with Demond Claiborne, a sixth-round pick in April who came in with plenty of buzz. Jones had even compared Claiborne’s speed and burst to Detroit Lions star Jahmyr Gibbs.
Claiborne was also a rumored target for the Vikings before the draft, and his college production at Wake Forest backed up the hype: 1,956 rushing yards, 21 rushing touchdowns, 51 receptions, 394 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns over his final two seasons. He also posted a 4.37-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.
But the fit hasn’t translated to the field. Claiborne has been inactive for the last two games and has only six carries for 13 yards. Ball security and pass protection have kept him from carving out a role, even in a season where Minnesota has been leaning on outside zone concepts that seemed tailor-made for his speed.
Claiborne shouldn’t feel too bad, because the Vikings have apparently put most of the 2026 rookie class in the slow cooker while they chase a championship push. Still, Johnson’s breakout makes the decision look worse by the week.
It’s not as if Johnson would have solved everything Taylor would. But he would have given Minnesota something.
He could have offered a different look than Mason, who has been efficient at 4.8 yards per carry but hasn’t done much as a receiver. He also would have brought some fresh legs to a backfield where Jones was asked to carry the load 85 times in the four games Mason missed with a thumb fracture.
Maybe Johnson would have been buried on the depth chart too. But even then, he would have been a cheap option for 2027 and beyond while the Vikings weigh the draft capital and financial cost of making a move for Taylor before the deadline.
For now, passing on Johnson looks like one more missed chance for a team still searching for a spark on the ground.
In Other News...
Vikings Just Sent A Clear Trade Deadline Signal To Fans
With the NFL trade deadline approaching, the Vikings created some breathing room on their roster by moving on from a pair of depth pieces and leaving themselves a little more flexibility for whatever comes next. Minnesota waived guard Trevor Keegan and released tight end Bryson Nesbit from the practice squad, a pair of transactions that opened spots as the team continues to sort through its options.
General manager Nolan Teasley has not added anyone yet, but the timing is hard to miss with Minnesota preparing for a matchup against the Buffalo Bills and still evaluating the depth chart. Even if no deal follows right away, the roster maneuvering suggests the Vikings are keeping the door open for a deadline move if the right opportunity presents itself. [Read more 🡒]
Vikings Suddenly Have A Jake Golday Decision They Can't Ignore
The Vikings run defense has hit a rough patch at exactly the wrong time, giving up 384 rushing yards over the last two games while the missed tackles have piled up. With more physical rushing attacks on the schedule, the issue is no longer just about scheme or effort. It is becoming a personnel question, and that has put rookie linebacker Jake Golday into the conversation as a possible way to steady things.
Golday has barely been used on defense this season, but he has earned trust on special teams and has shown the kind of tackling reliability Minnesota could use more of right now. The Vikings do not need to overhaul everything to get better against the run, but they do need to find answers quickly, and giving Golday a larger defensive role is the kind of adjustment that could make sense before the next wave of tough opponents arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Suddenly Have A Kirk Cousins Decision Fans Cant Ignore
Kirk Cousins has already become part of the conversation in Las Vegas this season, not just because of what he can still do on the field, but because of the role he is playing behind the scenes. The veteran quarterback is mentoring Fernando Mendoza for the Raiders, and after the team finally got back in the win column against the Jets, his presence has only looked more valuable to a club trying to steady itself during the 2026 season.
For Minnesota fans, the timing is hard to miss. A Vikings loss has reopened the quarterback chatter around the league, with Kyler Murray's future drawing speculation and Cousins naturally surfacing as a name to watch, but the Raiders do not appear eager to make that kind of move. The bigger question now is whether Las Vegas would even consider disrupting a locker room that is leaning on Cousins in more ways than one. [Read more 🡒]