Canton is still the goal for Aaron Jones

This is Year 10 for the Minnesota Vikings running back. He wants to play six more. He still believes the best is yet to come. "I haven’t fully left my stamp on the game," Jones tells Go Long.

Jul 27, 2026

Five years later, their final conversation stays on his mind. Loved ones were all able to say goodbye to Alvin Jones Sr. inside the comfort of his home.

At one point, father told son to chase his dreams and “get everything we talked about.”

He passed away. The funeral commenced. It was soon Aaron Jones’ time to offer a few final words at the casket. As his eyes welled up, the NFL running back made a promise: “I’m going to go get that gold jacket.” He balled up a fist to beat his heart because Dad taught him to do everything with his heart, and then had no choice but to move on. Somehow.

The Minnesota Vikings vet relived the entire experience with Go Long last season.

On our most recent trip to Eagan, Minn., this offseason, we touched base again.

Frankly, last season did not go according to plan.

Up close, you can spy 1 ½ white strands in his beard. Jones is 31 years old with 2,059 career touches to his name. This is Year 10. By every metric, the former No. 182 overall pick out of Texas-El Paso has defied all expectations. The most diehard of Packer fans still revere this player in purple. Fans love him. Coaches and players, too. We talk to as many NFL people as we possibly can at Go Long — players, coaches, scouts, administrators. I’ve never heard NFL people universally rave about a player the way they do Jones. His character is universally worshiped.

The point: He easily could walk away with his head held high.

His NFL career has been an unequivocal success.

But he can’t. He’s still thinking about that promise to his father. Looking to feed his mind with confidence this offseason, Jones consciously imagined what it’d be like to make it to Canton and hear his Dad say: “Son, you did it.” He kept repeating those four words in his mind through OTAs and minicamp. Standing near the Vikings practice field, he pauses several moments.

“I don’t know what that feeling is going to feel like,” Jones says, “but I can’t wait to hear it. So, I close my eyes and try to picture it.”

This isn’t a fantasy to him. Jones “1,000 percent” believes he can speak this into existence.

Nobody ever expected him to last this long.

On his left knee is a “G” tattoo. Post-Packers, this one now stands for “Greatness.”

On his right knee, he says he’ll get the “V” finished up.

Then, Jones points to a spot on his right arm. That’s where he says he’ll get a new tattoo soon: I Did It.

Go Long is your home for real, raw football.

New here? It’s a perfect time to join our community.

Injuries railroaded this vision in 2025. Two games in, he suffered a hamstring injury and missed a month. Upon returning, Jones sprained his AC joint against Detroit. He gritted through the pain to finish with 747 total yards and three scores before missing the final game with a torn labrum in his hip.

Heading into training camp, Jones is “100 percent” healthy. This is as good as he’s felt in a long time. He’s in line to be the No. 1 back again.

“It’s about how you respond,” Jones says. “Are you going to put your head down and work or are you going to make excuses? I put my head down and worked this offseason and hopefully it’ll show this upcoming season. I know the best ability is availability so if I’m able to be there for my team, I can do some good things.”

Like Frank Gore (16 seasons) and Emmitt Smith (15 seasons) before him, Jones wants to go down as a “unicorn” at the running back position.

The way he feels right now, Jones believes he has six seasons still in him.

Those random white hairs? “A little wisdom.”

What matters most is that his body still feels young at the most cutthroat position in the sport. All 32 teams churn through running backs because there’s always someone cheaper with more juice. In today’s NFL economy, it’s hard enough for a talented back to get to his second pro contract. Jones is still going.

“I think it shows dedication and selflessness,” Jones says. “Because at that position, it’s not just running the ball. It’s pass protection. It’s making that game-saving pickup so they can get the ball off. Or you’re running a play fake and getting hit by one or two dudes. Sacrificing. I feel young. I haven’t fully left my stamp on the game as well. If I can play for another five, six years, my numbers will go on up and be right there with the best of them. And then at the end of it, there’s no debate.”

As in enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

If he’s somehow able to maintain his career pace for another six years, Jones would flirt with 14,000 career rushing yards. Only six players in league history have eclipsed this number. That’s obviously an exceptionally lofty goal. But there’s no reason he can’t bounce back in a big way this 2026 season. Jones is only two years removed from a career-high 1,138 rushing yards. The Vikings hired run-game guru Frank Smith from Miami as an assistant head coach, return to full strength on the offensive line and may start a quarterback capable of functioning in a modern passing attack this season. All of which should blow a gust of wind in Jones’ sails.

He’s still having fun. Jones hasn’t lost his zest for this sport at all. At the end of the 2025 season, he told running backs coach Curtis Modkins that after seeing fullback CJ Ham retire, he has no desire to hang ‘em up himself. (“There will have to be no team that wants me before I get out,” he added.) Still, it takes two.

The Vikings brass made it clear they wanted Jones.

Jones made it clear he didn’t want to play anywhere else.

Both parties agreed to restructure his contract to $5.6 million for this season.

In theory, he’ll share the workload with 5-foot-11, 230-pound bruiser Jordan Mason. Rookie Demond Claiborne, who ran a 4.37 in the 40 at the Combine, is also an intriguing prospect worth monitoring. The Vikings certainly value everything Jones brings off the field, too. He’s already been taking Claiborne under his wing. Nothing new there. He has always taken immense pride in helping all young players that he can. This day, Jones brings up Packers wide receiver Christian Watson. Back in Round 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft, he’s the one who announced that draft pick. Through the receiver’s injury issues, Jones offered words of encouragement. Told him the key is to never feel sorry for yourself.

When Watson got paid this offseason, Jones beamed with pride.

“I like to think I had a little effect on their life,” he says.

Football is always more than those 60 minutes on a Sunday.

No way does Jones last this long in the NFL without the influence of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams early in his own career. Both had a unique way of instilling confidence in him. Randomly, the Packers quarterback would tell Jones he needs to speak in front of the team. Spur of the moment. No warning. Jones didn’t have a choice. He cannot remember what he said to everyone, but the soft-spoken running back quickly became comfortable talking in front of the team. Big picture, the exercise helped prepare him for more uncomfortable moments in the sport.

Here in Minnesota, he believes this roster has all the ingredients required to shoot right back into title contention after backtracking to 9-8. Jones even thinks that edition of the Vikings could’ve done damage in the playoffs if they snuck in.

“We still have that hunger, that bitter taste in our mouth,” Jones says, “and you can tell there’s an urgency around here. Love the coaching staff. Love the support staff. Love everything about this building. They really make it about us — for us to get to Sunday and be at our best. They listen to the players. So, this is a great place to be. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I’m blessed that it worked out and get to be here another year and hopefully have a career year and get to stay.”

His greatest foe isn’t any linebacker in the NFC North. Rather, Father Time.

Mention the medieval torture device that safety Harrison Smith used to extend his career 14 seasons, and Jones jumps in. He’s been using that same exact device to stretch his limbs out. Smith gifted this “Pravilo” stretching device to Vikings linebacker Chaz Chambliss and Jones asked all about the funky method of stretching first developed by Slavic warriors in battle prep centuries ago. The machine, he explains, both stretches you out and rotates your joints. Anything to squeeze a little more out of this career.

His hip never required surgery. Doctors say it’s actually gotten more flexible through rehab.

“That doesn’t normally happen,” Jones says. “I’m staying on top of it — never being satisfied.”

Once more, he brings up a quote from Michael Beasley. The former NBA pro said once on a podcast that success does happen overnight — you just don’t know which night it’ll be. That keeps Jones pushing to find any edge possible. Today, he’s thinking back to what ran through his mind at 15 years old. Back when nobody knew anything about him, back when a genuine love for the sport motivated him.

He could be anywhere else this summer. Jones has a 6-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl. (His boy is already a natural on the field.)

It’d be very easy for Dad to embrace a new life and leave scorching-hot practices in the past.

Yet as he speaks — hands on his knees, staring forward — Jones looks like he’ll instead sprint through the nearest wall at maximum velocity.

“I want to get better. It’s crazy to say. I’m 31, but I feel like I haven’t fully hit my prime,” Jones says. “I can get better every day. There’s something I can find and work on, whether it be my first step or whether it be a track or showing late hands. Did I show my hands too early? There’s a number of things that you can continue to work on. That’s what helps me.

“I don’t feel like I’ve fully arrived and that keeps me going, that keeps me hungry, that keeps me pushing out here.”

He’ll have another source of drive this season, too. When the Vikings get into the fourth quarter of games this season — when he’s hurting, wondering why he signed up for a 10th season, hunting for extra strength — all Aaron Jones needs to do is look down at his arm and see three words written in ink.