Aaron Jones — Week 3: Twenty-Two Touches, One Fourth Down
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Jones carried 17 times for 58 yards and three first downs, one of them a 3-yard run on fourth and one at the Tampa Bay 35 with 6:08 left and Minnesota up 17–16, on the drive to a 56-yard field goal. He caught 5 of 6 targets for 34 yards, five of the targets after halftime, a week after he had none, in a 23–16 win over the Buccaneers.
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17 to 16, Vikings, six oh eight left in the fourth quarter, fourth and one at the Tampa Bay 35. One snap earlier Aaron Jones had caught a four-yarder on third and five to set it up. Minnesota went for it, and Jones went up the middle for three yards to the 32. +1.8 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 9.1 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest win-probability gain on any Vikings run, scrambles included. The drive went backwards from there, a sack and two Minnesota penalties leaving third and 27, and Jones caught an 11-yarder on that third and 27 to give Will Reichard a 56-yard try, which he made. 20 to 16 with three 15 left.
The line: 17 carries, 58 yards, no touchdown, three first downs, six of the 17 successful, −1.4 expected points on the carries; six targets, five catches, 34 yards, one first down. The carries went eight, nine, two, −1, one, five, one, two, six, 14, two, two, one, one, three, one, one. Nine before halftime for 33 yards, eight after for 25. The nine was second and two on the opening drive, a first down at the Tampa Bay 37; the 14 was first and 10 at his own 20 on Minnesota's first snap of the second half. The last two were clock runs at the Tampa Bay 27 26, with the Buccaneers spending all three timeouts, before Reichard's 43-yarder. The catches all came after halftime: five on second and 10, the four on third and five, two on second and 15, the 11, and 12 on first and 10 at the Tampa Bay 41 with a minute 39 left, the snap after Andrew Van Ginkel's interception, to the 29. The one incompletion was short right in the second quarter. A one-yard run in the first quarter and a third-down incompletion his way with four oh two left came back on Minnesota holding penalties.
The split: 17 of Minnesota's 21 designed runs were his, with three for Claiborne and one for DeeJay Dallas. Six targets were second on the team to Jordan Addison's nine, on a day Justin Jefferson left in the first quarter with an ankle injury, per MPR News. Jordan Mason remains on injured reserve with a thumb fracture, per CBS Sports.
Back in June the preview made no call on Jones: a year-10 back kept at a 40-percent pay cut, framed as the passing-down half of a backfield Jordan Mason would lead, with his early touch count as the thing that would announce a phase-out. Week 1 was 12 carries to Mason's 15 one target. Mason then went on injured reserve, and Week 2 was 23 carries and no targets. Sunday put the two halves together: 17 carries and six targets, 22 touches. Three games: 52 carries, 203 yards, one touchdown, seven targets. That is not a phase-out. The carries arrived with the depth chart; the targets are the part that was his in June, and they came back this week. Minnesota is home to the Dolphins on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
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