Regardless of receiving the second-round RFA tender from the 49ers this week, Jordan Mason won’t play in San Francisco subsequent 12 months. The fourth-year working again has been traded to the Vikings, per his company (via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network).
As a part of the deal, Mason has agreed to a two-year Vikings contract, Rapoport notes. The pact has a most worth of $12M and contains $7M assured at signing. Per Rapoport and colleague Tom Pelissero, the commerce consists of a 2026 sixth-round choose being despatched from Minnesota to San Francisco. The groups can even swap picks No. 160 and 187 on this 12 months’s draft.
Mason totaled solely 83 carries throughout his first two seasons, however in 2024 he was a key member of the 49ers’ floor sport. Christian McCaffrey‘s Achilles points opened the door for the previous UDFA to see notable utilization, and he obtained 153 carries on the 12 months. Mason’s success (880 scrimmage yards, three touchdowns, 5.2 yards per try common) made it clear San Francisco would look to maintain him within the fold shifting ahead. The choice to apply the second-round tender appeared to lock him right into a $5.3M wage for 2025.
Because of this, the 49ers would have been in line for a second-round choose as compensation within the occasion Mason signed a suggestion sheet with an outdoor workforce, which they declined to match. Now, the 25-year-old shall be on the transfer by way of a swap. San Francisco nonetheless has McCaffrey on the books, together with Isaac Guerendo and Patrick Taylor. An addition within the 2025 draft – which options a number of highly-regarded RB prospects – would come as no shock given this deal.
For the Vikings, in the meantime, Mason will permit for extra of a tandem within the backfield shifting ahead. Aaron Jones impressed whereas taking part in on a one-year contract in 2024, setting a brand new profession excessive in dashing yards. That yielded a brand new settlement simply earlier than the negotiating interval opened, and Jones is now hooked up to a two-year, $20M pact. Whereas the Vikings expressed a need to maintain the previous Professional Bowler within the fold, in addition they made it clear they meant to cut back his workload after Jones dealt with 306 touches (essentially the most of his profession) in 2024. Mason will assist obtain that purpose.
The latter recorded double-digit carries seven occasions in his 12 appearances final 12 months. Mason suffered an ankle sprain in Week 13, nevertheless, and the harm ended his marketing campaign. His absence shall be felt on a 49ers workforce which misplaced Elijah Mitchell to the Chiefs in free company. Even when Guerendo takes on a bigger function subsequent season (after logging 84 carries as a rookie), no less than one addition within the backfield may be anticipated.
As an alternative of hitting free company in 2026 after taking part in on the tender, Mason has now secured extra assured than he would have obtained with San Francisco subsequent season. The Georgia Tech product drew curiosity from different groups, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reports. Now, he’ll look to duplicate his 2024 success in a brand new setting because the Vikings goal to offer Jones with an efficient complementary rusher.
