Jordan Mason’s work with the San Francisco 49ers as Christian McCaffrey’s backup earned him a two-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings this offseason. While he is still second on the depth chart, this is a different situation with a more direct way to fantasy football production.
Of course, your draftmates are well aware of that, so where should Mason be slotted on your cheat sheets this summer?
Jordan Mason’s Fantasy Outlook
The pro-Mason case is easy, and given the limited draft capital you have to spend to add him to your bench, I believe that’s the right case to make.
Upcoming is his age-26 season, and while we only have a limited sample size, it’s difficult not to be impressed by the overall profile. For his career, Mason has 236 carries (250 touches) and has averaged 5.3 yards per carry while posting a 77.8% catch rate. My optimism surrounding his potential as more than simply a handcuff is rooted in what he has brought to the table when given the opportunity.
For his career, Mason has five games where he’s been on the field for at least two-thirds of the snaps, and in those contests, he’s been nothing short of great: 16.7 fantasy points per game.
A Chuba Hubbard chart disguised as a Derrick Henry chart disguised as a Bucky Irving chart disguised as a Jordan Mason chart pic.twitter.com/69TMXcWJ4K
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) June 5, 2025
Across those games, he picked up 505 yards and scored three times on the ground, gaining yardage on 81% of his attempts. That per-game fantasy number would have been good for RB1 status in 2024 if sustained for a full season, ranking in the Kyren Williams, James Cook, and Kenneth Walker III range.
Any player who sits second on his team’s depth chart is a parlay — you not only have to trust his talent, but you also have to be OK with betting against the RB1 who sits ahead of him. Aaron Jones has been a staple on successful fantasy rosters for half a decade, and that’s scary to be on the opposite side of, but don’t forget, we are looking through the windshield, not the rearview.
We are worried about what is coming down the road, over what has happened in the past, and if you take that approach, the fading of Jones becomes less intimidating.
The veteran running back is entering his age-30 season and is closing on 1,800 regular season touches (add on another 144 touches to his tired legs if you want to include his eight playoff appearances). His first season with Minnesota didn’t help his advanced profile rebound from an underwhelming final season in Green Bay — his worst two PPR per-touch seasons have come in the past two seasons.
Jones’ EPA per rush in 2024 was a career low and he ran out of gas when it mattered most, not recording a single carry of over 15 yards in his final five games of last regular season (it’s not as if they were managing him for the playoffs, he ran 13 times for 48 yards in the Wild Card loss to the Rams).
Jones played every game last season, something he’s never done in consecutive seasons. The bet on Mason requires patience, as Jones is likely to enter this upcoming season in good shape and as a featured asset as the Vikings usher in the J.J. McCarthy era. Patience, however, is what fantasy champions often have in spades – Mason is a pick winning managers make, those who understand that the fantasy season is a marathon, not a sprint.
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There is no guarantee that he is used in a dramatically different way than he was during his San Francisco days, and that is what has his price tag as reasonable. There’s also no guarantee that this isn’t a committee situation sooner or later, and you’ve acquired double-digit touches every week at a discount.
I’m comfortable enough in my ability to draft high-end talent in the front half of the draft, and that allows me to take calculated chances like this later, playing the long game and angling to have an optimal roster come December.
Dan Fornek’s Jordan Mason Fantasy Projection
Jordan Mason spent the first two seasons of his career getting minimal playing time buried behind Christian McCaffrey, Jeff Wilson, and Elijah Mitchell. In 2022 and 2023, Mason handled just 80 carries for 264 yards and four touchdowns while adding three receptions for 31 yards.
In 2024, Mason got an opportunity to show what he could do in the backfield when McCaffrey and Mitchell went down during the summer with injuries. The results were largely mixed. Mason started the season strong, handling 128 carries for 667 yards and three touchdowns while adding 10 receptions for 86 yards from Weeks 1 through 7. He was the RB20 in PPR points per game (14.5) despite battling through a shoulder injury that he re-injured in Week 8.
Mason took a backseat in the offense once again when Christian McCaffrey returned (26 touches from Weeks 8 to 13) before an ankle injury ended his season early.
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The 49ers surprisingly traded Mason to the Minnesota Vikings this offseason, giving him new life in fantasy football. Aaron Jones will undoubtedly be the lead back in 2025, but his workload last season (career-high 306 touches) could be an issue. The Vikings tried to find a complementary back last season, a role that Mason will fill in 2025.
Mason won’t offer much in the passing game, but he could have interesting upside as a rusher with a goal-line role. Given Minnesota’s offensive line, he is a premium handcuff that could return more value if he earns a consistent workload to start 2025. Â
