The workload wasn’t huge, but it’s better than nothing.
RB3 Ty Chandler, the demoted Vikings playmaker, had his number called late in a close game with the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 10. The top option — Mr. Aaron Jones — was nursing a rib injury after a hard hit, so the task of carrying the ball fell to Cam Akers and Chandler. Does the 2022 draftee see a bit more work in the coming weeks?
The Road Ahead for Vikings Playmaker Ty Chandler
Make no mistake: the backfield still belongs to Jones.
The veteran runner had a solid day at the office on Sunday. True, there weren’t any game-breaking runs, but he consistently picked up solid yardage against a defense that was doing a nice job of limiting Justin Jefferson.
Even with the missed time, Jones finished his day with a team-leading 17 carries for 88 yards (5.2 average). He didn’t score but did add a pair of catches for 13 yards.
Next up was Akers, who sneakily had a major workload. The recently-minted RB2 picked up 13 carries but had just 38 yards to show for his effort.
In that sense, Chandler actually showed a bit more promise. Across just 4 carries, Chandler picked up 18 yards, good for a 4.5 yards-per-carry average. His longest gain went for 8 yards, a straight-ahead run that involved picking up good momentum behind his blazing speed.
Indeed, that’s how Chandler is going to distinguish himself: the incredible wheels. Prior to the 2022 NFL Draft, Chandler tossed up a 4.38 forty. Few, if any, Vikings are faster.
Watching Jones, Akers, and Chandler run leads to a different impression. The first name is the best of the bunch by a good margin. He does a much better job of gliding on the field, bursting through small openings while maintaining his balance after getting hit. He also has the softest hands of the three.
The issue, as we saw in Jacksonville, is that Jones can get hurt. In that case, the Vikings need the run game to continue functioning without its main threat, especially when the Jags took the approach that they did. Justin Jefferson was largely contained, turning his 9 targets into 5 catches for 48 scoreless yards. Quite humble, especially for someone as magnificent as Jefferson.
Akers runs similarly to Jones insofar as he demonstrates some good patience, but he doesn’t have the power of the former Packer.
Chandler, meanwhile, is more of a straight ahead runner, someone who doesn’t do quite as well at slowing down to read the openings before exploding through. Having the RB3 on the field means plowing ahead when running inside and then trying to get to the edge so he can outrun the angle along the outside. If he can turn the corner, the defense is in trouble.
In Week 7, Chandler snagged a pair of carries for just 4 yards. He then was shutout from the offense in Week 8 and Week 9, totally phased out as Jones continued taking the lion’s share of the work while Akers got upgraded to RB2. The Week 10 workload, though small, helps reveal why Ty Chandler is being kept in town.
The Vikings don’t want to go back to the 2022 & 2023 version of themselves: a disproportionately pass-heavy attack, largely out of necessity. Sam Darnold, though solid, isn’t Kirk Cousins, so expecting him to throw it as much as #8 just doesn’t make a ton of sense.
Rather, Minnesota will continue seeking balance — they ran it 43 times in Week 10 while throwing the ball 38 times — so we’ll have to see what kind of job Ty Chandler gets in the coming weeks.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.