By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings often have twists and turns, even mid-week.
Kevin O’Connell announced on Wednesday that the Vikings’ running back has a fracture in his thumb that will keep him out over the next four weeks.
What happens now?
The obvious plan will be to lean heavily on Aaron Jones, whose season high in carries in 2025 was 22 against the New York Giants in Week 16 (he ran for 85 yards). He had double-digit carries six times in total last season. In Week 1, Jones carried the ball 12 times for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Putting the entire load on a 31-year-old running back who has been banged up in the recent past might be a lot to ask. The Vikings are likely to lean on newcomer DeeJay Dallas as RB2 based on the fact they used him last week in a pass-protection role on several third downs and he caught a pass in Week 1.
Dallas was semi-regularly utilized by the Seattle Seahawks from 2020 through 2022. Over those three seasons he carried the ball 102 times for 434 yards and caught 55 passes for 370 yards.
Since then he bounced from Arizona to Jacksonville to Carolina and didn’t stick with those organizations, only seeing 12 carries for 70 yards since 2023.
So why would the Vikings turn to him? O’Connell explained:
“I just thought it was a huge move by Nolan [Teasley], he had familiarity with the player, and then you could see why he was so confident in bringing him in,” O’Connell said. “We were excited as coaches, and that was Matt Daniels in the kicking game. Clearly, we saw his impact made a tackle and a huge block to spring Myles Price on that long return.”
O’Connell continued…
“He’s very, very smart player the physicality that he plays with on team shows up in pass pro and he’s you know got some good instincts and and vision and tools as a runner. To have him available to us here has been has been big and obviously with Jordan’s situation he’ll you know he’ll probably see an even more increased role.”
Dallas talked at his locker after practice, estimating that he knows about 90% of the Vikings’ playbook already. He explained that he has used word-association techniques to try to learn it as quickly as possible.
“I just kind of try to approach it ike, I learned when I was a rookie [in Seattle], I learned from players like Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, KJ Wright, all of those guys, and they just kind of taught me like, you got to be a pros pro,” Dallas said. “Just coming in, spending extra hours, going home, watching film, extra, like writing up the plays.”
It’s been a whirlwind for the 28-year-old running back bouncing from team to team but the Vikings have strongly embraced him already. He said that offensive coordinator Wes Phillips’ message to him before the game played into that.
“Pregame I’m warming up, going through my process and coach Wes comes up to me, he's like, ‘man, I trust you wholeheartedly,’” Dallas said. “It's like, ‘oh, shoot, I'm really about to get in here, and you about to throw me into the fire.’ He said he had the almost confidence in me and what I knew [of the playbook]. I just took that as like respect my craft and honestly, it felt good. Going out there, knowing that…he's basically putting his neck on the line with a kid who just…got here a couple days ago.”
The Vikings also added veteran running back Jerome Ford to the practice squad. It wasn’t long ago that Ford was successful in Cleveland, rushing 104 times for 565 yards (5.4 YPC). Last year, however, he only saw 24 carries. Ford has been often used as a receiving back, catching 44 passes in 2023, 37 in 2024 and 26 last season.
Will the Vikings turn to rookie Demond Claiborne?