Jordan Mason finished 2024 with his best season in his three-year career and, in return, got traded to the Vikings in the offseason. The 49ers are a RB factory, and the emergence of Isaac Guerendo presented a potentially very crowded room. With Mason out of the picture, CMC will remain the starter and Guerendo will back him up in 2025. For Mason, he will start as RB2 for the Vikings, but with the potential to take the starting job.
Aaron Jones will be the starter in Minnesota, but Mason will provide some much-needed competition. Jones is getting up there in age at 30 years old and going into his ninth NFL season. His yards per carry has declined in each of the last two seasons. He did record over 1,000 rushing yards a season ago, so the tank is not empty just quite yet. This is the perfect spot for Jordan Mason because he is the clear bell cow back if something were to happen to an older Jones.
Mason played in 12 games a season ago, but didn’t get a big workload in many of those games based on whether Christian McCaffrey was playing. In the three games in which he received a workhorse load of 20 carries, he recorded at least 100 rushing yards and a touchdown in each game. Mason averaged 5.2 yards per carry, a more than respectable number for a guy who received 153 carries in the season. If Mason is given a bigger role, I think he would make that next step as one of the best running backs in the league.
Despite all of his limitations in terms of games played and snapcounts, Mason was ranked 40th among running backs in DraftKings fantasy scoring in 2024, averaging 10.4 FPTS per game. Mason will be one of the best handcuffs in fantasy football next season if you take Aaron Jones earlier on. I think his stock is only going one way, and that’s up. Mason feels like the kind of player who just needs one opportunity to take over the starting role and never give it back.
