What will Jerick McKinnon’s role be with the Vikings in 2017?

The Minnesota Vikings’ running back is entering the fourth season with the team and it also happens to be the last year of his current contract.

Before the Minnesota Vikings selected him in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft, Jerick McKinnon had never strictly played a season of football in which he was primarily a running back. He did a lot of running in college, but he was listed as a quarterback.

So basically, McKinnon has only been a running back for three years of his life. Considering that, his adjustment has been pretty good.

In three seasons with the Vikings, he has started 13 games, scored seven touchdowns, and averaged 4.6 yards every time he has touched the ball. For a point of reference, Adrian Peterson averaged 4.47 yards per touch during his last three years with Minnesota.

But for the upcoming season, McKinnon’s role in the offense may be a bigger unknown than it has in any of his previous years with the Vikings.

Minnesota has two brand new running backs in Latavius Murray and Dalvin Cook and the team opted not to re-sign Peterson or fellow free-agent running back Matt Asiata this offseason. McKinnon is the only back on the team’s current roster that has carried the ball in a regular season game for the Vikings.

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Despite his experience in Minnesota, he is not expected to be the starting running back when the team takes the field in Week 1. The Vikings have tried him as a starter before and it just does not seem like the role that best utilizes all of McKinnon’s playmaking abilities in the open field.

When the season begins, a safe assumption would be that Murray and McKinnon would split a majority of the touches in the backfield as Cook continues to adjust to life in the NFL.

However, Cook does seem like the type of player that could make an impact almost immediately. A solid training camp and preseason could force the Vikings to name the rookie their starter and McKinnon could possibly begin the year as the team’s third running back.

But just because he would be listed as Minnesota’s third-string back does not mean that he will not get chances to make plays out on the field each and every week. With Cordarrelle Patterson now gone, McKinnon can now take a similar role in the offense that the wide receiver had by lining up in different spots all over the field.

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So expect the Vikings to still make an effort to get the ball in his hands this season, but McKinnon likely will not be the team’s starter at any point in 2017 unless injuries give Minnesota no other choice.