Finally, at long last, Aaron Jones’ fantasy owners have had their prayers answered! The talented but often underutilized back was featured in a Week 10 win over the Dolphins, logging a season-high 18 touches (3 rec.) for a career-high 172 total yards and 2 TDs. Meanwhile, the plodding Jamaal Williams received a season-low 3 carries, which he turned into a robust 3 yards. Consider the backfield reigns officially passed.
Indeed, this explosion makes HC Mike McCarthy look even dumber for taking so long to unlock Jones’ cage. Still, at least we can rejoice that it’s finally happened. Considering Jones has averaged over 5.0 YPC in every contest, with his 6.76 YPC leading the league, a takeover always felt inevitable.
But it’s comforting that McCarthy still rode Jones despite his costly Week 9 fumble versus the Patriots, followed by an early-game drop to begin Week 10. Moving forward, Jones seems a lock for 15-20 weekly touches inside this explosive attack. This recipe has RB1 written all over it. Don’t forget: in 2017, when Jones was featured from Weeks 4-7 after a Ty Montgomery injury, he was the RB5 over that span, totaling 3 TDs and two games over 130 yards.
Granted, any coach who’s dumb enough to let Jones rot this long can’t ever be fully trusted. Still, with the fourth easiest SoS for RBs, only a handful of RBs match Jones’ season-long upside. He rises 40+ spots on my Rest of Season Big Board.
