What has been a red-hot offseason for Minnesota Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah continued on Saturday night, with the Vikings swinging a trade with the San Francisco 49ers for running back Jordan Mason.
The surprising trade filled yet another roster need for Minnesota, which wanted to add a backfield mate for starter Aaron Jones. The undrafted Mason worked his way up the 49ers’ depth chart in recent seasons and racked up 789 rushing yards in relief of injured superstar Christian McCaffery in 2024.
While Mason, 25, is far from an elite prospect, he’s a physical runner who can work between the tackles and showed excellent vision for San Francisco last year. Short on capital for the 2025 NFL Draft — the Vikings currently hold a league-low four selections — this is yet another move that sews up a need and will allow the team to take a best-player-available approach this April.
Jordan Mason trade details
The Vikings gave up next to nothing to add this young, high-upside back to their roster.
Minnesota sent a 2026 sixth-round pick — value akin to a seventh-round selection this year — to San Francisco, and the teams are swapping Day 3 picks in 2025. Essentially, the Vikings turned the second of their two fifth-round picks, No. 160 overall, into an early sixth-rounder, No. 187.
Mason also received a two-year deal from the Vikings worth a max of $12 million with a little over $7 million in guarantees.
Vikings trade grades for Jordan Mason
Here’s what NFL experts are saying about this deal for Minnesota:
Sullivan: Minnesota gets a quality backup to Jones, who is entering his age-30 season. As the Vikings saw last season, Mason is capable of taking on the bulk of the carries in a pinch, and doing so at a high level, notching three games with over 100 yards rushing. That includes when he rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown against them in Week 2 last season. As the roster is currently constituted, Mason should slot in as the No. 2 option in the backfield behind Jones and ahead of Ty Chandler. Meanwhile, Minnesota secures this depth piece with a relatively low cost over his two-year extension. Shipping out a Day 3 pick and moving down the board some also shouldn’t have Kwesi Adofo-Mensah staying awake a night.
Howe: The Vikings moved down 27 spots in this year’s draft to acquire Mason and a sixth-rounder next year. That’s pretty solid. This isn’t the type of trade that will win anyone a Super Bowl, but it’s important to have as much depth as possible around a (presumably) young quarterback. Mason more than held his own amid the 49ers’ offensive chaos last season, so his trajectory is pointing upward. If there’s a nitpick, it’s that this is a strong running back draft class. But Mason has experience with the type of run scheme he’ll see in Minnesota and should be viewed as more of a sure thing than a rookie, so there’s peace of mind for a team that expects to be a playoff contender in 2025.
Pensabene: The Minnesota Vikings getting a cheap backup running back in Jordan Mason is a plus with Aaron Jones being the lead back. The pick swaps in the 2025 NFL Draft are not significant enough to cause too much concern and this should be a good sign of what the Minnesota Vikings should be in 2025, a running football team with Kevin O’Connell calling the shots.
Iyer: Minnesota re-signed Jones and gets a better backup in the former understudy to Christian McCaffrey.
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