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MINNEAPOLIS -- The rookie season of running back Jerick McKinnon is over, thanks to a lower back injury that will require surgery and an eight-week recovery. During an eight-game stretch in which he was effectively the Minnesota Vikings' primary back in Adrian Peterson's absence -- spanning from his first taste of a prominent role against Atlanta to the final game he played against Chicago -- McKinnon gained 531 yards on 108 carries and caught 23 passes for 121 yards.  It's time to play the old projection game: Double those numbers over a full season, and you've got the following: 216 carries for 1,062 yards and 46 catches for 242 yards. Is that production good enough to make him the featured back of the future in Minnesota?
Quite possibly. The Vikings undoubtedly would like to see McKinnon turn more of his receptions into bigger gains, and they seem to like the idea of keeping several running backs healthy, but that kind of a full-season workload probably isn't far from what they'd envisioned their top running back, whether it's McKinnon, Adrian Peterson or someone else. In LaDainian Tomlinson's second season with Norv Turner in San Diego, he carried 292 times for 1,110 yards and caught 52 passes for 426 yards. That's a total of 342 touches at an average of 4.47 yards per touch. McKinnon didn't touch the ball as often in a half-season of concentrated work, but he did more when he got the ball -- 4.97 yards per touch on average -- the 29-year-old Tomlinson in 2008. Pair him with another running back or two, and you've got cost-efficient, dual-threat production from a young Vikings backfield in Turner's offense. Two caveats here: McKinnon gained 238 of his rushing yards in two games against Atlanta and Buffalo (though he saw limited opportunities in a couple games in which the Vikings were trailing), and it's probably tougher to maintain efficient production over the second half of a season than it is the first. That's what has made Peterson's output so remarkable over the years. But McKinnon also showed an ability to get the tough yards -- he's 11th in the league with an average of 2.15 yards after contact, according to ESPN Stats & Information -- and he was playing without Brandon Fusco, the guard who might be the Vikings' best run-blocking lineman. McKinnon gained the Vikings' attention with his eye-popping workout numbers (a 4.41-second 40, 40 1/2-inch vertical leap and 32 bench press reps at the NFL scouting combine), and it isn't hard to see them penciling him in at the top of their backfield cast in the future. If Peterson successfully appeals his suspension and is reinstated for the end of the season, he might get a chance to play in the Vikings' final two or three games, and he'd likely have opportunities to show how much of a difference-maker he could still be. But it's important to think about the future with the facts the Vikings will consider: They've got a 22-year-old running back -- slated to count $648,750 against next year's cap -- who looks like he can be a significant piece of their backfield in the future. At the very least, that would likely mean asking Peterson to reduce his $15.4 million cap number at age 30 and share some of his role with McKinnon in the future. A Peterson-McKinnon tandem could be a wonderful asset for the Vikings, but it's fair to wonder how amenable Peterson would be to that kind of arrangement in Minnesota, as opposed to getting a fresh start somewhere else. At the very least, McKinnon gave the Vikings a taste of what he could do as the chief member of their backfield group, and he rewarded their faith in spending a third-round pick on a player who had spent his final two college seasons as a triple-option quarterback. It stands to reason we'll see plenty more of him in the future, regardless of whether Peterson is in Minnesota.
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