The 2026 NFL season is approaching, and fans of teams like the Minnesota Vikings are preparing to watch their favorite players take the field and hopefully lead their teams to many wins as well as the playoffs.
Sadly, great contributors can't play forever. Vikings fans got a great lesson in retirement of contributors this offseason when fullback C.J. Ham and wide receiver Adam Thielen called it a career after the 2025 campaign.
While the future of safety Harrison Smith is still up in the air, there is a question about which of the current purple and gold contributors might be playing the final snaps of their careers during the upcoming season.
Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones is on a list for the 2026 season that definitely isn't a good thing.
The media is rabid about this being the Aaron Rodgers retirement tour this season. The former nemesis of the Minnesota Vikings was a thorn in the team's side during his time in Green Bay, but the four-time MVP has earned that attention.
Recently, FanSided's Jake Beckman assembled a list of players who could call it a career after the upcoming season, and Vikings running back Aaron Jones was listed as a player who could potentially retire before the 2027 NFL season.
"If your name isn’t Derrick Henry, you don’t want to be a running back in the NFL after you turn 30 years old. Aaron Jones is going to be turning 32 years old in December."
Last season, Jones had the second-lowest rushing output of his nine-season NFL career. His 548 rushing yards beat only his rookie year in 2017, when he started only four games on his way to 448 rushing yards.
Jones took a significant pay cut to stay with the Vikings this season, and the 31-year-old running back has dealt with significant injury issues in the past. Next offseason, it wouldn't be shocking to see Minnesota try to get younger and cheaper at the position while trying to prepare for the future.
Aaron Jones is by far the youngest player listed in Beckman's article, but that makes sense, since running back is a position where it is rare to see a player remain an effective contributor into their 30s.
If Jones does choose to retire after the 2026 NFL season, he will have had one heck of a career. Fans of the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers should be proud to have him as part of their franchise history and appreciate the time he spent with those teams.
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