The Minnesota Vikings enter free agency with a bunch of departing players, including crucial athletes like Sam Darnold, Byron Murphy […]
The Minnesota Vikings enter free agency with a bunch of departing players, including crucial athletes like Sam Darnold, Byron Murphy Jr., Cam Bynum, and Aaron Jones. The latter signed a one-year deal a year ago and was quite solid for the Vikings.
Aaron Jones Earns Contract Projection
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah now has to either hand him another contract or replace him. Other options in free agency are Najee Harris, J.K. Dobbins, and Javonte Williams. In addition to that, this year’s RB draft class has drawn comparisons to the outstanding 2017 class, which also included Dalvin Cook and Jones, among numerous other playmakers.
However, Jones played well for the purple team after spending his entire career with their green rivals.
That’s why Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay predicts the Vikings to re-sign the 30-year-old.
“The Minnesota Vikings were one of the many teams that benefited from landing a veteran running back on the open market last year,” Kay noted. “Aaron Jones was a natural fit in the purple, gold and white, rushing a career-high 255 times for 1,138 yards and five touchdowns while also adding 408 yards and two scores on 51 receptions. The Vikings received a great return on their one-year, $7 million investment. They can now look to shore up their backfield for the next few years knowing Jones still has plenty left in the tank.”
Jones was hired to boost the abysmal rushing attack, and he surely was a significant upgrade over Alexander Mattison.
Just last week, the Vikings pushed his contract’s void date into the future, signaling that there is mutual interest in a reunion.
ESPN’s Field Yates reported, “The Vikings and RB Aaron Jones agreed to move the void date on his contract from this Monday until the final day before free agency. If Jones had not been extended by Monday, the team would have taken on $3.2M in dead money in 2025.”
The club performed the same move with cornerback Murphy.
“This expands the window for Jones and Minnesota to continue to negotiate a new deal that would avoid that amount hitting the cap in full for 2025,” Yates continued. “It doesn’t guarantee a new deal will be reached, but it buys time for both sides if there is interest in hammering one out before free agency.”
Last year, Jones was paid $7 million in his first year away from Green Bay. Kay expects his next deal to be worth the same, just for more than one year. “Expect Jones to net a similarly priced extension from the Vikings before then. Although a three-year deal would take him through his age-33 campaign, Minnesota’s brass can give itself outs in the contract while keeping the door open for Jones to stay if he continues to play at a high level.”
Jones getting a deal worth $7 million per season is realistic, and he was still explosive last year. It’s fair to expect him to have another year or two left in the tank. However, the suggestion of including outs in the contract makes sense, too. He is 30 years old and running backs can fall off a cliff at any point.
Kevin O’Connell endorsed a Jones return last week, “The big thing for me is we loved having Aaron Jones; the impact he had. He was really, for the better part of his career, part of backfield committees, and for the most part, Aaron Jones was the featured back, played 17 games, he was able to be durable, over 1,500 yards all-purpose for us, catching the ball out of the backfield, running it at an elite level, so I would love to have Aaron back.”
Free agency will open on March 10th with the legal tampering window, and players can sign two days later.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt
