Vikings giddy about what running back Aaron Jones can do for them

Vikings center Garrett Bradbury’s unbridled reaction when asked how different it is to block for Aaron Jones sums up the general giddiness that’s been palpable throughout TCO Performance Center since Jones’ debut as the team’s lead running back in last Sunday’s season-opening win at the Giants.

“Oh, boy … oh, my gosh … ‚” Bradbury said while searching for words to quantify the incalculable difference between one of the NFL’s elite runners and last year’s failed experiment in which the Vikings promoted career backup Alexander Mattison to RB1.

Care to elaborate, Garrett?

“Dude,” Bradbury continued, “I can’t believe the Packers got rid of that guy.”

Apparently, one NFC North team’s garbage is another NFC North team’s gold. Or so it certainly seems early on as the Vikings head into Sunday’s home opener against the 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“Skol!” Jones said with a big smile while doing the famous overhead clap for reporters on Thursday. “I am so ready to hear that!”

In a 28-6 Week 1 win at MetLife Stadium, the third-leading rusher in Packers’ history (5,940 yards) turned Purple and ran 14 times for 94 yards, a 6.7-yard average and … believe it or not … a rushing touchdown!

This is not a hoax, folks. A Vikings team that tied a franchise record for fewest rushing touchdowns in a non-strike year (seven, four by running backs) in 2023 handed the ball to a running back at the 3-yard line, and, by gosh, he scored.

“It was a great example of what he’s going to bring to our team,” said coach Kevin O’Connell, who lost faith in the 29th-ranked rushing attack a year ago while running the ball only 393 times, the seventh-fewest in franchise history.

How Jones scored on a seemingly mundane but hardly simple play was something the Minnesota Star Tribune spent the week talking to players and coaches about. But first, let’s establish just how weird it actually was to see a Vikings’ rushing touchdown in the red zone by a running back before late October.

Jones scored on his third carry with the Vikings. It was his and the team’s second red-zone play and rushing attempt of the season. Now compare that to the constipated red-zone attack with Mattison in 2023.

The Vikings did not score a rushing touchdown until Week 8 a year ago. It came on their 20th trip into the red zone. It was third-string running back Cam Akers who scored on the team’s 16th red-zone carry of the year. Meanwhile, Mattison, who had no rushing touchdowns all last season, lost yardage on all four of his carries inside the 4-yard line in Weeks 1-7.

Fast forward to last Sunday. The Vikings trailed the Giants 3-0 on their second possession and faced second-and-goal from the 3 after Jones gained 2 yards on first down.

“We ran the duo play that everybody runs around the league,” said offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, referring to a call that gives the running back an inside-outside option. “But not every back in the league can do it.”

It’s a tight three-receiver formation with one tight end and a single back 8 yards deep. Tight end Johnny Mundt was lined up to the left of left tackle Christian Darrisaw. Receiver Brandon Powell was to Mundt’s left. Receiver Jordan Addison motioned from left of Powell to directly behind Mundt, drawing cornerback Nick McCloud, whose job it was to set the edge to that side, a step closer to the box.

“I can see the corner and the nickel going like this,” said Jones, imitating how they turned their stance toward the inside run option. “They do that, they can’t shift their body weight, change directions and beat me to the corner.”

The ball hasn’t been snapped and Jones already has decided that he’s likely to bounce the play to the left pylon.

“But I can’t just run to the left right away,” he said. “The more I press the play vertical, the more it sucks in those outside defenders. So I do that and see what they do.”

Everything Jones just talked about happens “in milliseconds,” O’Connell said. How quickly can Jones change direction based on what he sees?

“On a dime, like this,” said Jones, snapping his fingers.

Quarterback Sam Darnold takes the snap and turns first to his right even though the handoff is to the left.

“That freezes the linebackers,” Jones said.

Darrisaw and left guard Blake Brandel block the play as if Jones was going to dive between them. They do a nice job.

“I definitely got enough separation for him to hit the hole right there,” Darrisaw said. “I’m trying to drive my dude to the sideline and then you can see on film when all of a sudden I see out of the corner of my eye ‘33′ [Jones] in a race to the pylon. That’s OK. I knew he’d get there.”

Brandel laughed when asked if Jones ran where he was supposed to.

“If Aaron knows he can bounce it, then that’s where it’s ‘supposed’ to go,” Brandel said.

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Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores was watching from the sideline. He calls Jones a “defensive player” because he’s an “extension of the defense.” He also knows from experience what it’s like to defend Jones’ speed to the outside and surprisingly powerful 5-8, 209-pound frame.

“I’m glad he’s on our team, I’ll start by saying that,” Flores said. “He’s got a unique skillset. I think some of us have gifts, talents and abilities that some of us don’t.”

The Vikings spent the offseason learning what it takes to block for this different set of skills.

“I wouldn’t say guys have learned to block differently,” Jones said. “I’d say they’ve learned to continue to play because when you think a play is dead with me, it’s not.”

According to Powell, receivers have learned at least two things: “Every block is important whether it’s front side or back side, and you don’t have to block for very long with this guy.”

Powell got just enough of a block on McCloud to spring Jones on his way to the pylon and on to jumping into the stands in a celebration he said he will have to rename after seven seasons of the “Lambeau Leap.”

Asked if it was instincts or vision that gets him to the pylon ahead of the defender in a situation like that, Jones smiled and said, “I think it’s a little bit of both.

“I’ve always had it. The vision comes from basketball, I think. I played multiple sports growing up. Basketball is all read and react. Baseball, it’s hand-eye coordination. Soccer was my first sport. I think that’s why some guys do boxing in the offseason. To get that reaction to seeing things.”

Bradbury said he can feel Jones’ vision helping his run blocking.

“I’ll be reaching a guy and I can sense Aaron baiting the D-lineman like he’s going one way when I know he’s going to go the other way,” Bradbury said. “That’s been fun. It’s the same type of thing we had with Dalvin [Cook] back in like 2019, my rookie year, and 2020 a little bit.”

O’Connell also likes that Jones runs with a style that the coach hopes will help transform his team into one that can elevate its physicality and toughness to match the likes of reigning NFC champion San Francisco.

“What I love is on some of those longer runs [last week] he had no desire to go out of bounds,” O’Connell said. “There was a burst late to get every possible yard he could on those runs.”

• • •

Jones, 29, was disappointed when the Packers went younger by signing Josh Jacobs, 26, to a four-year, $48 million deal. But he said he’s not harboring any bitterness toward his old team less than three weeks before his first return to Lambeau Field.

“I’m a Viking,” said the man who got a one-year, $7 million deal and is hoping for more years to come.

As for his impending 30th birthday, Jones sees no reason to dread the arrival of Dec. 2. Instead, he is doing extra work he hopes will prevent some of the injuries he’s experienced, like the hamstring issues that cost him six games before he finished last year with five consecutive 100-yard games, including two in the playoffs.

“You add things so it’s not rehab, it’s pre-hab,” Jones said. “I’ve always done hot tubs before practice. Now, I’m in the training room 45 minutes before practice doing things to warm up, activate my hamstrings, my quads, my glutes, my knees. And there are some recovery things the Vikings have here that I didn’t have in Green Bay, like the hyperbaric chamber.”

So how many more years does he want to be a Viking?

“All I know is I definitely have not lost anything,” Jones said. “I feel I am just entering my prime. So I don’t mind age because I’m aging like fine wine.”