The Vikings hope Aaron Jones’ hip injury isn’t serious, but they may not know more until they do further evaluation. Jones left Sunday’s overseas win over the Jets in the second quarter and didn’t return.
It’s a right hip issue for Jones, who was shown limping on the sideline with a frustrated look on his face. The 29-year-old also dealt with a hip injury in Week 2 against the 49ers, although he was able to play against the Texans the following week.
“He’ll be evaluated,” Kevin O’Connell said after the victory in London. “I’ll keep you guys posted from the standpoint of what that looks like, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that hopefully will be short-term.”
The 5-0 Vikings have a bye this week ahead of a big NFC North showdown against the Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium on October 20. That gives Jones two weeks to try to get healthy for that game.
It’s pretty clear how important Jones is to the Vikings’ offense. He was sixth in the NFL with 464 yards from scrimmage through the first four weeks of the season. In London, he had 29 rushing yards and a 24-yard reception at the time of his departure. After Jones left the game, the Vikings really struggled to get anything going on offense. They became rather one-dimensional, and Sam Darnold had easily his worst game of the season (14 for 31, 179 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT).
Without Jones, the Vikings’ running backs were Ty Chandler and Myles Gaskin, who combined for just 32 yards on 16 carries in this game (14 of those carries coming from Chandler). Fullback C.J. Ham also handled two carries, including the third rushing touchdown of his career. Speculatively, it’s possible the Vikings exercised extra caution with Jones knowing they have a bye week coming up and didn’t want to risk anything with one of their best offensive players.
“I just know he was kind of feeling it early on and tried to work through it,” O’Connell said, via Ben Goessling. “As it started to take a turn, hopefully we avoided anything major by getting him out of there.”
More information on Jones will likely become available this week. O’Connell’s next scheduled press conference is on Tuesday.
