The Vikings Have Now Been Left with No Choice
The Vikings have been left without much of a choice, right?
Zavier Scott was given the opportunity to shine in the preseason. The young runner didn’t let his opportunity go to waste. On the contrary, Mr. Scott had many promising moments, most notably when he chewed up yards within the screen game (do note, as well, that his modest production as a runner did at least arrive with the caveat that he commonly fell forward). Add the pair of preseason games — alongside what’s been seen from Ty Chandler these past three years — and one has to assume that Scott is the leader in the clubhouse for the third running back spot.
The Vikings Have Been Left with No Choice
At the end of August, the NFL moves into a bloodbath. And a feeding frenzy. The frenzy follows the bloodbath.
All of the league’s 32 teams trim their rosters from 90 players to 53. In some cases — as with the Vikings — there’s even a 91st player due to the international player exemption. Crunch the numbers and that means that roughly 1,200 football players get trimmed from their teams. Yes, a pile of them are going to get signed for a practice squad assignment, but others are going to journey to a new city due to the promise of a spot on a different 53-man roster.
The concern for the Vikings would be that Scott could get snagged by a rival team were he left off the final roster. Indeed, another team could get a five-finger discount on the running back, securing his services for the cheap, cheap price of just opening a roster spot.
Battling with Scott, of course, is Ty Chandler, the fourth-year veteran who was chosen in the Vikings’ infamous 2022 draft effort.
A pair of factors are working in Chandler’s favor: speed and special teams. Not too many NFL players have the wheels that Chandler has, someone who ran a blistering 4.38 forty. Sensibly enough, Minnesota has made an effort to showcase that speed, asking the running back to be the team’s primary kickoff returner for 2024. Chandler’s 25.6 yards-per-return average didn’t bring back memories of Cordarrelle Patterson, but Tai Felton — who was looking like the replacement at KR1 — fumbled the ball on Saturday. Maybe Chandler still has a role to play (at least if Myles Price doesn’t get in the way).
But then there’s Scott, someone who has inspired some intrigue (and who also ran a 4.38 forty).
Consider what Janik Eckardt had to say of the depth runner prior to the Patriots game: “Scott showed enormous promise in his Vikings preseason debut. He has the size and the explosiveness, as well as the receiving skills, to be a solid third option, but he needs to continue his upward trend.”
As Eckardt notes, Scott offers a fascinating blend of size and pass-catching abilities from the RB3 spot. Go ahead and toss on youth alongside a value deal to add even more intrigue.
Zavier Scott, 26-years-old, stands at 6’1″ and weighs 219 pounds (Chandler is coming in at 5’11” and 204 pounds; oh, and Chandler is 27). Scott is going to be an ERFA after the season, meaning the team will have first dibs on bringing him back. His cap charge for 2025 sits at a very modest $840,000.
Chandler, in contrast, is moving into a contract year. Even if he were to stick around in 2025, the Vikings appear unlikely to offer him a new deal in 2026 short of a sensational breakthrough in his level of play. Chandler’s $1,174,711 cap charge could be trimmed by $1,100,000 with a cut.
How much incentive is there to keep Chandler around?
The opening preseason game involved Zavier Scott turning 7 carries into 40 yards (5.7 YPC average). He added on 1 catch for 11 yards. As an encore against the Patriots, Scott’s day finished with 10 carries for 28 yards (2.8 YPC average). Where he really left his mark on the game was through his 3 catches for 44 yards.
The Vikings could opt to slide Zavier Scott back down to the practice squad — where the former Colt lived for all of 2024 — but doing so comes with the risk of seeing him get poached. After all, that’s basically what Minnesota did in 2024: scoop up Scott when Indianapolis opted to move on.
Aaron Jones is the RB1 and Jordan Mason is the RB2. At this point, the cat is out of the bag: Mr. Scott can play ball. A depth chart that doesn’t have Zavier Scott as the RB3 would arrive as a surprise.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
