The Vikings have big plans for an energized Aaron Jones. He feels like he’s just entering his prime

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Aaron Jones has begun his eighth NFL season, approaching a new team in Minnesota and his looming 30th birthday in December with the aplomb a running back in the NFL needs these days to stay healthy and relevant.

He’s serious about trying to make the second act of his career as long and productive as the first.

“I feel like every year, I’m getting better and better, and last year I felt like I was just about to start entering my prime,” said Jones, whose 2023 season with Green Bay was limited to 11 games because of hamstring and knee injuries.

Though Jones emerged from all that extra time in treatment with a remarkable surge down the stretch, rushing for 584 yards over the last five games including two in the playoffs, the Packers followed the script for salary cap management and released him after he balked at a steep pay cut for the second consecutive year. The rival Vikings, who ranked 29th in the league last season in rushing yards per game and tied for 27th the year before, swiftly and eagerly picked him up.

“Those last five kind of showed, like, hey, the game’s slowing down a little more and more for me,” Jones said after practice on Monday. “I can see different things, and I’m able to hit different holes or set dudes up the way I want to, versus maybe before I hadn’t been able to because the game was still a little fast.”

Most running backs don’t get the opportunity to translate such improved acumen and increased awareness into more on-field success at his age because teams often decide they’re not worth the price for all the pounding they’ve taken to date in such a pass-driven era.

Jones, who will turn 30 on Dec. 2, has been determined to surpass and even smash the average length of career at his position. He said he has studied durable predecessors in the game like Emmitt Smith and Frank Gore and even asked new teammate Harrison Smith, who at 35 is the oldest active defensive back currently on an active roster in the NFL, for advice on stretching techniques.

“The other day, it was an ongoing question in the locker room: ‘How much money would somebody have to pay you right now for you to stop playing football?’ And I was like, ‘Pretty much like no amount of money,’” said Jones, who signed a one-year contract worth $7 million. “I feel like I have a lot left in the tank. I feel like I could play eight more years.”

Jones missed a total of four games over the four previous seasons before 2023, so he’s had a relatively healthy run with the Packers since he was drafted in the fifth round out of Texas-El Paso in 2017. But he’s fully cognizant of the fragile nature of his occupation. He raved about the proactive approach the Vikings’ medical staff applies to player health, with an individualized pre-practice routine — call it “prehab” — for injury prevention that he started on his own in the summer.

“They were like: ‘We were already thinking about that. We’ve already got a card written up. You just tell us the body part, and we’ve got it,’” Jones said, later adding: “I picked my hammies. I picked my knees. I picked my ankles. Let’s warm it all up.”

Jones said this was the first offseason that he’s done this type of work. He said he feels far more fresh entering this September than he did last year.

“It’s always an experiment, every year,” Jones said. “Just when you think you’ve got it, you don’t. It’s an evolving situation.”

What ought to help keep Jones on the field is the presence of third-year backup Ty Chandler, who rushed for 461 yards and three touchdowns last season and overtook Alexander Mattison as the starter down the stretch. The Vikings could well wind up splitting snaps evenly between them.

“I’m excited to be his running mate,” Jones said. “I know he’s going to do great things this year, and I’m going to push him and be his biggest cheerleader.”

The Vikings have big plans for Jones, though, given his pass-catching skill and ability to thrive with a variety of play calls. His leadership and maturity prompted coach Kevin O’Connell to declare that Jones looked like he already has played with the Vikings for years.

“He’s just a good runner,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “He sees the field really well. He sees a lot and can tell you real time what he’s seeing and why he made a certain cut, so just having another talented back there is also a bonus for us. The offensive line looks a lot better when you have good runners back there.”