Sleeper: Jordan Mason - MIN

Jordan Mason did a fantastic job filling in for Christian McCaffrey before his own injury last season, and you knew San Francisco had a choice to make. They were already trying to crunch the numbers to make things work for their payroll, and Jordan Mason was going to become a casualty. So instead of paying him to keep him around, they traded him to Minnesota, and then Minnesota gave him a new deal for two years.

This isn't chump change — a $4 million signing bonus, $7.23 million of it guaranteed. They brought in Jordan Mason to be a key component of their backfield.

Now, Aaron Jones is coming off a career season, so this isn't necessarily an indictment on Aaron Jones. It’s just how good Jordan Mason could be in this offense. Last season, when he started for CMC during his injury — weeks one through seven — he looked fantastic: 128 rushing attempts, 667 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns. He averaged 5.2 yards per attempt, and he was the RB9 during that time frame.

A 17-game projection comes out to 311 rushing attempts, 1,602 rushing yards, and 7 rushing touchdowns. Do I think he's going to run for 1,600 yards or get 300 carries this season? No, I don’t think so. But that just goes to show you how good of a ceiling he had when he played last year.

In Week 13, when CMC went down with his injury again, Jordan Mason wasn’t the starter, but he did add another 78 rushing yards on 13 attempts.

If you take a look at the running backs last season with at least 150 rushing attempts, Jordan Mason’s efficiency was elite. His 5.2 yards per attempt ranked fifth. His 3.35 yards after contact per attempt ranked seventh, and his 0.24 avoided tackles per attempt ranked eighth.

In Weeks 1 through 7, Jordan Mason had 436 yards after contact — that was second only to Derrick Henry during that time span. He also had 32 avoided tackles in Weeks 1 through 7 — second to only James Conner during that stretch. Also, he had 19 runs of 10 or more yards from Weeks 1 through 7 — the most in the league of any running back.

And like I mentioned with Aaron Jones already, he's coming off of a career year — not just in terms of production, but in terms of touches as well. Last year was only the second time in his career that he stayed healthy for a full season.

It’s hard to imagine that the 31-year-old Aaron Jones is going to get 255 rushing attempts once again. He’s still going to be utilized in the run game — he absolutely will — but Jordan Mason was brought in to potentially become the lead back.

And if Aaron Jones misses any time whatsoever, Jordan Mason may end up being a top-12 asset.