Aug 16, 2013; Orchard Park, NY, USA; A general view a Minnesota Vikings helmet during the second half against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Bills beat the Vikings 20-16. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports.
The Minnesota Vikings have, alas, earned respect in national power rankings, the product of a fancy 11-2 record through 14 weeks of NFL action.
The Athletic nominated Minnesota as the league’s third-best team this week behind the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles, notably outpacing AFC squads like the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.
Josh Kendall of The Athletic also defined a “breakout” player for each NFL team, and somehow, according to him, that man is running back Aaron Jones for the Vikings.
“Calling the eighth-year pro a breakout player is stretching the term, but the impact players in Minnesota are all known names, and Jones has added an element to his game this season,” Kendall wrote this week. “He has 37 catches for 302 yards to go with 893 rushing yards, already his second-best total since 2020. He averaged 5.6 yards per carry against the Falcons on Sunday.”
Jones is a rather strange choice for breakout player, mainly because he broke into stardom about seven years ago. His performance in Minnesota — his first as a Viking — is not a surprise, though his impact is routinely felt on Sundays.
The ex-Green Bay Packer is on pace for 1,563 yards and 8 touchdowns this season, mostly staying healthy during his first year with the purple team and helping to rectify back-to-back seasons of rushing woes in Minnesota during the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.
The veteran also recently encountered adversity, developing a fumble bug out of nowhere and tying his career high (5) for fumbles through 12 games in Week 13. His struggles were so pronounced that his own mother suggested a bench assignment to fix the issue.
“She said they needed to sit you down. She was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but they need to take you out of the game. They need to bench him right now,'” Jones said Wednesday. “Anytime I hear from my mom, it’s going to be worse. I was like, ‘I gotta learn from it.’ and she said, ‘You didn’t learn from it last week?’ and I was like, ‘Damn, mom…’ I kind of didn’t know what to say, but it’s what I need.”
“My mom, being hard on me, that was my dad for so many years. My dad’s not here so now my mom’s kind of took the role over without me asking her. So it’s kind of a little eye-opening when your dad is on you, and your mom is the one rubbing your back [telling you] it’s okay, and now it’s mom getting on you and not too many…nobody is back there saying it’s okay,” Jones explained.
Jones repaired the fumble malady in a Week 14 clash with the Atlanta Falcons. He protected the rock, scored a touchdown, and the Vikings defeated Kirk Cousins’ team by a score of 42-21.
An alternative breakout player for Minnesota might be defensive tackle Jalen Redmond, who has emerged out of nowhere as a tackle-for-loss savant.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.