Talented Vikings Playmaker Gets Benched on SNF
Well, Ty Chandler didn’t play much of a role on Sunday Night Football.
The talented Vikings playmaker didn’t earn any carries for a Minnesota offense that was committed to running the ball. Even worse, there were no targets sent in his direction. Instead, Cam Akers got the nod to be the RB2, turning 6 carries into 46 yards for an impressive 7.7 yards-per-carry average. Does Minnesota have a new hierarchy among the running backs?
Ty Chandler, The Vikings Playmaker, Got Benched
In his post-game reaction piece, Janik Eckardt made note of the lesser role for Mr. Chandler.
“Ty Chandler entered the season as the top runner behind RB1 Aaron Jones,” Eckardt writes, “Jones is still the workhorse running back, but Cam Akers seems to be the number two now. Chandler didn’t get a single touch on offense, while Akers rushed six times for 46 yards. He was quite effective and didn’t look like a player coming off a torn Achilles.”
Eckardt continues: “Chandler struggled earlier in the season to keep the offense going when the Vikings needed him, but Akers seems to be the perfect player to give Jones an occasional breather.”
Let’s toss some numbers onto the observation from the PurplePTSD Managing Editor.
For the season, Chandler has 44 carries for 151 scoreless yards. The 3.4 yards-per-carry average is uninspiring, to say the least. Even more damning is that he hasn’t earned a single touch in consecutive weeks. The last time Chandler got touches in the offense was coming out of the bye in the Detroit game. Chandler had 2 carries go for 4 yards.
Last night, Sam Darnold targeted ten different Vikings players. Justin Jefferson feasted — 7 catches for 137 yards and an eye-popping 19.6 yards-per-catch average — but the goal was clearly to get a lot of pass catchers involved.
All five receivers got at least a single target. All three tight ends got at least a single target. Just two of the three running backs — Aaron Jones & Cam Akers — got targets in the passing game. To their credit, Jones and Akers turned a collective 6 targets into 6 catches for 25 yards. So, not huge yardage (the screen game didn’t work last night) but there’s something to be said for catching the ball every time.
Missing within all of that is Ty Chandler. The third-year player doesn’t lack for speed or talent, but he has struggled in 2024 after showing some promise to finish off the 2023 season. In theory, Chandler should be able to contribute given that he’s so explosive but he is currently an afterthought for the offense.
After the game, Kevin O’Connell spoke with the media. The head coach said that he “loved the way Cam Akers popped a little bit.” Later on in the presser, O’Connell praised Akers’ “patience” while explaining that “it was great to see him out there and doing his thing.”
At this point, the recent evidence suggests that Ty Chandler has been demoted. Minnesota has a new RB2, Mr. Cam Akers, the recently-acquired runner who showed off some great burst for the Vikings on Sunday Night Football.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
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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.