Fantasy Football Depth Chart Debate: Jordan Mason vs. Aaron Jones

Jordan Mason comes to training camp as the Vikings' RB2, but also the much more promising long-term option.

Nov 16, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings running back Jordan Mason (27) runs in for a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Minnesota Vikings have a split backfield entering the 2026 NFL season. Aaron Jones is their RB1 on paper, while Jordan Mason trails closely behind. Fantasy football is a game all about upside. The question now is: who has the higher upside in Minnesota? Here is what I foresee between the two ball carriers.

Fantasy Football Outlook

In 2025, the situation favored Jones on a per-game basis. The duo played 12 games together in 2025. In that span, Jones averaged 11.0 rushing attempts per game to Mason's 6.2. What is interesting is that while Jones had priority, he was definitely not the better running back.

Across all games played in 2025, Jones averaged just 4.2 yards per attempt, while Mason averaged 4.8. In the red zone, Mason has 16 touches to Jones' 13 in that span, although scoring just 2 touchdowns to Jones' 1.

What I am most taken with are the comments from Minnesota. Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips stated, "He (Mason) dropped some pounds; he felt like he was too heavy... really impressed with his mindset coming into year two with us." Kevin O'Connell toppled on with his own praise, "He's in unbelievable shape right now."

Mason has a huge age advantage over Jones at 27. Jones is near the end of his days at 31. For reference, the average retirement age for running backs with 1,000+ career touches is roughly 31 years old. Jones is teetering.

To begin the season, we expect that the Vikings will field a 50- 50 split. Both players had exactly three rushing attempts in their first preseason game.

Kevin O'Connell has said the team plans to place greater emphasis on the run game under Kyler Murray. This is a team that passed at the 14th-highest rate in 2025. Logically, they would benefit from going a more run-heavy route with such a versatile runner in Murray.

My current projection still favors the Vikings to pass just slightly above league average. The offense will be highly effective depending on how good they become. The initial expectation is that this is an average NFL team, but possibly the worst in their own division. That makes for a second-half pass script when trailing in football games, hence a 58.5% expected pass rate in my own analysis.

The projections find a 50-50% split in season-long rushing volume between both Jones and Mason. Being that Jones is a pass-catching running back, he will benefit from the higher ranking in 2026 fantasy football. The expectation is that Jones will catch 7% of the Vikings' passing game while Mason stumbles to 2%.

In total, Jones ranks as the RB31 in Non-PPR and RB27 in PPR. Mason ranks as my RB40 in Non-PPR and RB44 in PPR. Mason is still the higher-upside running back. If anyone could take over a majority lead, it would be the younger, healthier back.