Aaron Jones has been everything the Vikings thought he would be
As Jones gets ready to play the Packers again, he's having the most fun of his football life
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — Last year on New Year’s Eve, the Green Bay Packers came into US Bank Stadium looking for a win to propel them into the playoffs. On that night they leaned heavily on running back Aaron Jones, who rushed 20 times for 120 yards, and left victorious over the Minnesota Vikings. They eventually reached the postseason at 9-8 and won a playoff game over the Dallas Cowboys behind a huge performance by Jones.
That was hardly the first time Jones faced Minnesota and did damage in a key late-season game.
On January 1, 2023, with the Vikings fighting for the conference lead, Jones ran 14 times for 111 yards in a blowout win for the Packers. On January 2, 2022, Jones had 76 yards rushing and 30 yards receiving in a 37-10 Green Bay victory that put the final nail in Mike Zimmer’s coffin. On December 23, 2019, Jones put a wrap on the division title for Green Bay with 154 yards and two touchdowns in US Bank Stadium.
When Jones was released by the Packers this offseason, the Vikings couldn’t let him go anywhere where he could hurt them in late December or January, so they signed him to a one-year contract. On the day he signed, Jones probably could have predicted that there would be a game in the final weeks of the season against the Packers that would be meaningful for his team. That will be the case on Sunday when the Vikings play his former team at US Bank Stadium.
What he wouldn’t have known when he arrived was that the Vikings would enter this important late-December game with an opportunity to go 2-0 in the final two weeks and win the entire conference. He also wouldn’t have had any idea what it was going to be like on this side of the state line.
It turns out that Jones has fit in as well as he ever could have imagined. On Thursday, he highlighted the relationships that he’s built throughout the year within the locker room.
“This is probably the most fun I've had playing football,” Jones said. “It's just being around a great group of guys. Everybody's looking forward to coming into work every day. When you're away from them….you miss them… it's just that bond that we've created amongst each other. And it's crazy because it's a lot of our first times together. But that bond, just time that you get to spend together and making those real connections that you know when you get into battle, they really matter.”
Jones has long been known in the NFL for his leadership capabilities. Head coach Kevin O’Connell said on Friday that he felt the value of Jones’s personality on the organization immediately after the Vikings brought him in.
“He's just got such a genuine care for people and that's everyone in this building and it didn't take him a long time to show that and it's authentic and it's real,” O’Connell said. “His impact on the field has been huge… you just can't underscore what he's meant to our team… Sam [Darnold] coming in here in year one, kind of growing together and having Aaron [Jones] with him every step of the way has been significant. So, he's been huge for our team all season long, really, from the moment we signed him.”
It isn’t difficult to find other testimonials around the Vikings locker room when it comes to Jones. Receiver Justin Jefferson has appreciated Jones’s positive energy.
“My main thing is just how good of a person he is,” Jefferson said. “Beside his ability to play football and to run the ball… he's always having a smile on his face. He's always dapping up the guys, always trying to give us encouraging words before we're going out there on the field… it's definitely been a great pickup for us.”
Quarterback Sam Darnold pointed to Jones’s preparedness and communication.
“You just get the same thing every single day,” Darnold said. “He's going to come in here, have a great attitude. Pick up the game plan every single week. If he's got questions, he's going to ask me if I got questions on a certain route that he's running. Just the dialogue every single day that we have not only about football stuff, but off the field things as well. It's incredible to have him as a teammate.”
Tight end TJ Hockenson talked about connecting with Jones on a personal level and teammates wanting to play hard for him.
“He's one of those guys that just fits the glue of this program…he really cares about you as a person, wants to learn who you are as a person and get close to you in that kind of setting,” Hockenson said. “As a teammate, he's incredible. You know, you want to block for a guy like that.”
While his importance as a teammate can’t be overstated, Jones has solidified the backfield in ways that we haven’t seen since the early part of the 2022 season. The former Packer has 1,046 yards with a 4.5 yards-per-carry average and 42 receptions for 348 yards and seven total touchdowns. His mark of 5.1 yards per touch is the highest by a running back for the Vikings since 2020.
Most importantly, Jones has remained healthy. In previous years he had battled injuries and missed time periodically. When he arrived in Minnesota, the Vikings put together a plan for him from Day 1 of camp to help him navigate a 17-game season and that extra effort has paid off.
Jones said that reaching 1,000 yards this season was extra meaningful to him because he wanted to show the world that the running back age curve doesn’t exactly apply to all runners.
“I think this one meant even more with me turning 30, and [people saying] that's when [running backs] decline, this, that, and other,” Jones said. “I feel like it's a standard for every back. In the league, you want to top that 1,000-yard mark… so I just showed that I got a lot of juice and proved people wrong.”
Despite his age, Jones has still demonstrated explosiveness throughout the season. He has 24 rushes of 10 or more yards and has the 12th most forced missed tackles in the NFL, per PFF. He has also avoided negative plays. Jones only has six carries this year with a loss of two yards or more. There are 33 backs with more significant TFLs than Jones. Last year the Vikings’ starting running back Alex Mattison ranked fifth in runs that resulted in at least a two-yard loss.
“He can make things shake in the backfield and can help you set up your block,” Hockenson said. “It makes your job and your life a little easier because you don't have to worry about which way he's gonna go, he's gonna make you right. So he's he's been a heck of a player all year.”
“We still can't believe that he's on our side but we love it,” Hockenson added.
Going up against a Packers defense that ranks eighth in yards allowed per game on the ground and fifth in yards per carry allowed, the Vikings will need Jones to bring the same “juice” that he brought to those late December and early January games against the Vikings in the past in order to walk away with a win.
“You want to be at your best late into the season, going into the playoffs, just kind of catching that stride,” Jones said. “If I say I took anything from [previous late-season games], it's just kind of never too high, never too low. You can't be through the roof.”