The Minnesota Vikings are a difficult team to project for 2025. Last year the Vikings finished the regular season with a 14-3 record, their best campaign since winning 15 games in 1998. The team even had a chance to knock off the Detroit Lions for the NFC North crown in Week 18. But, with two thoroughly miserable games to close out the season, including an embarrassing beatdown by the Rams in the Wild Card round, it’s hard to confidently predict the Vikings will be right back near the top of a competitive division in 2025.
Additionally, the team is facing several serious question marks including, what to do at quarterback. Sam Darnold had an exceptional year for Minnesota. But it came out of absolutely nowhere and there’s no real reason to be fully convinced it will happen again.
While it’s imperative that the Vikings figure out what to do with Darnold this offseason, he is not the boom-or-bust free agent we’re discussing here.
After signing a one-year, $7 million contract with the Vikings last offseason, running back Aaron Jones produced for Minnesota, putting together the most prolific rushing campaign of his career in his age-29 season. Jones played all 17 games and ran for 1,138 yards – ninth-best in the league. He added 408 receiving yards and finished with seven total touchdowns, providing the Vikings’ offense with a dependable option out of the backfield.
Now a free agent once again, “Prospective suitors will expect Jones to have significant juice left in the tank, and if he replicates his overall production from 2024, there won’t be much room for complaint,” according to NFL.com
The Vikings have a decision to make on free agent RB Aaron Jones
Jones spent the first seven years of his career with the Green Bay Packers, producing four 1,000+ all purpose yard seasons and 70 total touchdowns. The team showed its appreciation by cutting the RB. The Packers would always rather be a year or two early than a year late – don’t let that aww-shucks-we-don’t-even-have-an-owner midwestern charm fool you. The Packers are brutal.
Anyway, Jones was part of the veteran free agent running back revival of 2024, when Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs and others all signed with new teams and changed the perception of the position’s value.
Despite this, there remains a stigma around 30-year-old rushers. “Running backs historically reach a cliff right around this age, and a deeper look at Jones’ 2025 numbers might suggest he already did,” NFL.com explains, pointing out that Jones’ per carry and per game stats dropped significantly over the second half of the season.
The question facing the Vikings is, should they run it back with Jones at a very reasonable rate (if he can repeat his 2024 production) or is it time to move on in anticipation of a drop off? Minnesota could look to the draft to find a new back as the 2025 class is considered strong at the position. The free agent group this year is not particularly interesting though.
The Vikings have a number of free agents on both sides of the ball that they’ll need to address this offseason. While the team is in solid financial shape with $63 million in cap space to work with, they won’t be able to sign everybody. It’s possible they move on from Jones after one year.
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