Jordan Mason had a breakout season with the San Francisco 49ers, and the Minnesota Vikings are poised to cash in on their decision to trade for him.
According to NFL prospect writer Chris Trapasso, Mason should be considered one of the best acquisitions of the off-season, and Trapasso referred to the first-year Vikings RB as “the next god on the ground for the Vikings.”
The undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech rushed for 789 yards and three touchdowns in Christian McCaffrey’s absence a year ago. The Vikings acquired Mason from San Francisco in the off-season for two late-round draft picks — a 2025 sixth-round pick and a 2026 fifth-round pick.
Why Is Jordan Mason So Great?
A running back I didn’t scout pre-draft…
didn’t get drafted…
…but ranked top 3 all-time in my predictive model, RESIN
His name? Jordan Mason. This offseason, the #Vikings got their future workhorse for pennies
t.co/IBWVlyTzRe
(cc: @MatthewColler)
Trapasso, a prospect writer formerly of CBS Sports, detailed Mason’s exceptionalism, especially through his self-created metric “RESIN,” which stands for Reverse Engineered Scouting Index Number.
Trapasso detailed where Mason fell upon his initial valuations.
“Mason’s 21.74 RB RESIN was, at the time, the third-highest in my five-year database, only outdone by 2021 first-rounder Travis Etienne and Javonte Williams,” Trapasso wrote. “He instantly became the archetype for one of the main features I was aiming to accomplish with RESIN — the identification of late-round picks or UDFA with plus contributor or star potential.”
Trapasso also cited Mason’s missed-tackles-forced per touch metric, which was on par with one of the NFL’s elite running backs, and coincidentally his former college teammate.
“As San Francisco’s clear No. 1 back, Mason was fifth in the NFL in rushing through seven weeks (771 yards) with a comparable MTF % to that of his former Georgia Tech backfield mate Jahmyr Gibbs,” Trapasso wrote. Mason’s was 25.1 percent; Gibbs’ was 27.6 percent.
“Mason also achieved all these figures despite having the NFL’s second-highest stacked-box rate (33.3%) according to Next Gen Stats. [insert mind-blown emoji here].”
Why Will Jordan Mason Thrive Especially With The Vikings?
Trapasso cited Mason’s ability to produce in Kyle Shanahan’s offense, which should set him up for success with fellow-offensive-guru Kevin O’Connell.
“Mason’s spent the past three years learning the intricacies of running in a Shanahanian system, which is precisely what he’ll be deployed in with the Vikings under Kevin O’Connell,” Trapasso wrote.
So even though Aaron Jones was the No. 98 player on the NFL Network’s top-100 list, and is first on the Vikings depth chart, Mason could be the long-term option for Minnesota due to his lower mileage.
“Nothing against Aaron Jones … but check the age and carry disparity between these two backs,” Trapasso write. “Just counting professional runs, Jones has 1,549 attempts to his name, and he’s 31 in December.
“Mason has carried the football 238 times in the NFL and turned 26 in May. If we count collegiate totes too — Jones’ figure swells to 2,207, Mason’s just 687.”
Trapasso especially lauded GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s ability to pass on spending a high draft pick on a high-mileage college back and instead use late draft capital to take an unproven commodity.
“Mason isn’t going to be Adrian Peterson,” Trapasso wrote. “But Minnesota has been desperately searching for their next ground-game workhorse since the decline of Dalvin Cook, and they have him in Mason, a former [undrafted free agent] with a high RESIN.
“With this move, Adofo-Mensah tapped into a rarely utilized market — acquiring a young, proven, low-mileage runner for a late-round pick. So smart.”
