Jones Is Banged Up, and the Vikings Have Almost Nobody Behind Him

Aaron Jones Sr. is dealing with a knee injury, which is the last thing this backfield needed a week after Jordan Mason went on injured reserve with a fractured thumb. Mason had been the load carrier — 758 rushing yards last season, the team's primary ball-carrier before surgery took him out. Jones was the fallback. Now the fallback is hurting.

The depth chart behind Jones at this point is DeeJay Dallas, who was listed as questionable as recently as this week, and a pair of names — Demond Claiborne and Max Bredeson — who have not logged meaningful snaps. That is a thin room under any circumstances. Right now it is a genuine problem.

What makes this harder is that Jones, at his age, was never going to carry 20 carries a week anyway. He has been a useful complementary back — 548 rushing yards and a receiving role out of the backfield in 2025 — but a featured workload is a different ask. A knee injury complicates even the limited version of that role. The Vikings got Murray back this week, which helped the quarterback situation. The backfield situation has not gotten any better.