Inside The Vikings

With Alexander Mattison Struggling, Will Cam Akers' Role Expand Soon?

Mattison has remained the workhorse back for the Vikings despite not producing at a high level.
Will Ragatz|
With Alexander Mattison Struggling, Will Cam Akers' Role Expand Soon?
With Alexander Mattison Struggling, Will Cam Akers' Role Expand Soon?

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Minnesota Vikings

What will it take for the Vikings to get Cam Akers more involved in their offense?

Despite acquiring Akers via trade a month ago and getting solid production from him in a small sample size, the Vikings have continued to lean on Alexander Mattison as their workhorse running back. He out-snapped Akers 33 to 14 and 37 to 21 in their first two games as teammates. Surprisingly, the gap grew much wider in Sunday's game against the Bears, with Mattison seeing 45 snaps to Akers' nine.

In that win in Chicago, Mattison had 22 touches for an inefficient 72 yards and dropped two passes. Akers had two touches for 15 yards.

It's been a tough season for Mattison, who was re-signed and elevated to a starting role for the first time this year in the wake of Dalvin Cook being released. Two strong games of 90-plus rushing yards against the Chargers and Panthers have been sandwiched between four games where he's struggled to get anything going on the ground. In total, Mattison has averaged 3.9 yards per carry, which is in line with his marks from the last two seasons. He also leads the Vikings with five dropped passes on just 26 targets.

From an efficiency standpoint, Mattison ranks 32nd out of 41 qualified running backs in rush yards over expected, according to NextGenStats (Notably, Cook is 41st). PFF has him 37th in rushing grade out of 53 backs with at least 25 carries.

Akers' season-long efficiency metrics are marred by his 22-carry, 29-yard game in the Rams' opener. Since being acquired by Minnesota, he has 11 carries for 63 yards (5.7 YPC) and five catches on five targets. That includes a seven-touch, 51-yard day against the Panthers in which he showed plenty of juice.

So why was Akers hardly used against the Bears? Could it have something to do with pass protection ability or knowledge of the playbook? The Vikings clearly still believe in Mattison and what he brings to their offense with his physical running style. Nonetheless, it will be rather confusing if Akers is once again an afterthought in the offense during Monday night's game against the 49ers' elite defense.

"I think each game’s a little bit different as to how it plays out," offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said on Wednesday. "How many different situations you’re in, how much tempo you’re using, what those plays are, all those types of things. I do see Cam continuing to get carries and get touches and get more involved."

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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