During the 2024 season, running back Jordan Mason impressed as San Francisco’s lead back with Christian McCaffrey sidelined due to injury. He started the season with a 147-yard performance against the Jets before coming up with another 100 yards against the Vikings.
That game left an impression on Minnesota General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who traded for Mason, who was a restricted free agent, earlier this month.
In his Wednesday press conference, Adofo-Mensah said the team is “Just really excited” to bring Mason in.
“We got to see him play against us, obviously, and that kind of impressed us,” Adofo-Mensah said. “And obviously, I’ve been in that building and know how they evaluate running backs and the tutelage he’ll get with a guy like [49ers RBs coach] Bobby Turner — who’s I think the best in the league, maybe one of the best the sport’s ever seen at that position. And so those things kind of start ideating in your head. And then your scouts come and tell you, ‘Hey, he’s an RFA,’ or different things like that, and we talk through the dynamics of how that could work.”
The Vikings also re-signed running back Aaron Jones, with the idea that he and Mason will create a strong one-two punch.
“We’re really excited about the tandem, the pairing, just the physical play style, [Mason is] really more of a four-minute back, when he gets to the second level he can do a lot of things with contact balance and different things like that. Aaron’s — actually for a smaller guy runs pretty physical himself — really good in the passing game. So we just like the pairing.
“Like I said, we want to be able to win any game and so if we’ve got to run it 40 times, we want to run in 40 times with those two guys, and so we’re just really excited about the pairing. And then with my experience with that front office, obviously, when it’s time to make a transaction, we can be really transparent and honest with each other and those deals happen that way.”
Mason appeared in 12 games with six starts in 2024 before suffering a high-ankle sprain that ended his season in the Week 13 loss to Buffalo. He rushed for 789 yards with three touchdowns — averaging 5.2 yards per carry — while also catching 11 passes for 91 yards.
