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Minnesota Vikings running back Alexander Mattison suffered a lower-body injury during Tuesday’s training camp practice. The initial thought is that it is a mild injury as he returned to watch the remainder of practice on the sideline. He will have tests done to double-check and even added “I should be OK” as he went to get looked at initially. Mattison is expected to be the starting running back for Minnesota after the team released veteran Dalvin Cook.
Players who didn't finish practice for apparent injury reasons: CB Andrew Booth, WR Trishton Jackson, RB Alexander Mattison. Jackson was taken off on a cart. Mattison stayed on the field and watched the remainder of practice before walking to the locker room.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) August 1, 2023
Mattison is heading into his fifth career season, all with Minnesota. He played in all 17 games last year and finished with 283 yards and five touchdowns on just 74 carries. Mattison has receiving upside in the offense but never got to display it much behind Cook, adding only 91 more yards and one touchdown last season on 15 receptions. Mattison performed well when playing for an injured Cook but finally gets his chance to be the featured back.
With Mattison moving up the depth chart, we await to see who will assume his backup role. The Minnesota backfield currently consists of Mattison, Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu and DeWayne McBride as the top four backs. Training camp results will help to solve this issue, but for now, the feeling is that the backup job is Chandler’s to lose.