Vikings RB Aaron Jones returned from his hamstring injury for Thursday night's game vs. the Chargers and worked in a committee with RB Jordan Mason. Neither guy got anything going. Jones carried five times for 15 yards, while Mason mustered three yards on four carries. The Vikings fell behind by 14 early in the second quarter and trailed by double digits the rest of the game. And they ran only 47 plays, so there wasn't much volume to go around. But neither RB found any room to run. RB Zavier Scott wound up leading the team with 16 rushing yards -- with all of that coming on two carries in a pure garbage-time possession at the end of the game.
Jones played a much bigger role in this one than we expected in his first game off a multi-week hamstring injury. He played 53% of Minnesota's offensive snaps and ran a route on 50% of pass plays. Corresponding numbers for Mason: 35% snap rate and 28% routes.
The pair rotated fairly evenly during the first half, regardless of the down and distance. Jones got more work in the second half with the Vikings facing a big deficit. That was different backfield usage than we saw over the first two weeks of the season, when Mason played more in running situations and Jones more on passing downs.
We'll continue to keep an eye on this backfield going forward. But it doesn't look like a situation for big fantasy production. The Vikings aren't getting good QB play, and the offensive line remains banged up.
Neither Mason nor Jones will be more than a RB3 in a tough Week 9 matchup against the Lions. Week 10 brings a better spot vs. the Ravens.
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