The Minnesota Vikings have good news and bad news.
One the one hand, they have eight starters hitting free agency next month; on the other, they have nearly $60 million in salary cap space, good for 7th in the NFL.
Although the primary concern will likely be the secondary, where both perimeter corners, Byron Murphy Jr. and former Defensive Player of the Year, Stephon Gilmore; alongside free safety, Cam Bynum, all have expiring contracts this offseason, the team has a major issue at one offensive position group.
Both of the Vikings #1 and #2 running backs, Aaron Jones and Cam Akers at set to become free agents in March – the former of whom had an excellent year in 2024, rushing for a career high 1,138 yards, recording 7 total touchdowns on the way.
Vikings Urged To Re-Sign Aaron Jones To Support JJ McCarthy
As a result, Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report believes that the Vikings needs to re-sign the former Pro Bowler this offseason.
In choosing one player to bring back for the NFC North runners-up, Gagnon says, “Itâs tough to pick a defensive back because practically all of them are free agents and they may opt to overhaul the secondary. Iâm also not rolling with Sam Darnold because he collapsed late in 2024 and they have a first-round sophomore in J.J. McCarthy under center. Letâs focus on who can best support McCarthy, and that starts with a well-established back coming off a career year.”
Aaron Jones and Cam Akers accounted for over 77% of Minnesota’s rushing yards last season, with the remainder coming mostly from quarterback, Sam Darnold (212) and third string back, Ty Chandler (180).
Whilst Akers has never quite managed to replicate the form he showed early on in his career whilst at the Los Angeles Rams, much of that being due to suffering of two major Achilles injuries in less than three years, Jones managed to field some of his best work of his career despite having turned the dread 3-0 last December.
How Much Will Jones Cost To Retain?
At 30 years old, it’s unlikely that any team will be willing to give Jones a long contract with a bunch of guaranteed money, particularly now that Jones is almost at the all-important 1500 pro career rushes mark, clocking in at 1432 carries since his debut with the Green Bay Packers in 2017.
However, after demonstrating his continued productivity this past year, there could be numerous other teams interested in giving the former Packer a surprisingly generous deal that could come in at around the $8-10 million figure – a number that general manager, Kwesi Adofo Mensah, may be reluctant to match given the team’s substantial amount of imminent free agent departures.
This could be particularly problematic if the team decides to stick with Sam Darnold and give him the franchise tag or longer term deal, both expected to be in the $40 million/annum ball park; leaving the team with less than $20 million to play with as the team hopes to build on what was a very impressive 14-3 record in the regular season – despite a very poor finish to the season in the Wild Card round.
But if the team does not make a move for Jones, there are very few strong options in what is a fairly flat free agent RB class, that mostly consists of low end RB1s and mid-range RB2s. The Vikings could take a chance on ex All-Pro, Nick Chubb; but he looked far from his former elite self in 2024, after coming back from a horrific MCL tear early on in the 2023 season, averaging just 3.3 yards/carry on 102 rushes this past season.
Or they could look to a stacked running back draft class in 2025, and hope that one of the elite RB prospects falls right into their lap.
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