There was a hypothetical question recently circulating among the Vikings inside the locker room at TCO Performance Center.

How much money would it take to stop playing football right now?

As some of his teammates offered up certain dollar amounts, veteran running back Aaron Jones was steadfast in his response. There was no amount of money that would suffice. Not a chance.

“I feel like I have a lot left in the tank,” Jones said. “I feel like I could play eight more years.”

Though that might be a little bit of a stretch considering Jones turns 30 years old in a few months, it’s hard to argue with the fact that he still looks the part of an elite player at his position.

After battling injuries during the early portion of last season, Jones got healthy down the stretch and started dominating. He impressively eclipsed the century mark in each of his final five games, helping the Packers go on a playoff run that ended on the precipice of them reaching the NFC Championship game. In total, Jones recorded 102 carries for 584 yards in that span, serving as a catalyst for the offense out of the backfield.

“I was able to show what I could really do,” Jones said. “I felt like I was just about to start entering my prime and then kind of got hurt.”

Now, there’s extra motivation for Jones this season as he attempts to prove that he’s indeed in his prime. He was released by Packers before free agency in a move designed to save some money against the salary cap. He signed a one-year, $7 million contract with the Vikings roughly 24 hours later.

“I remember when we got him, I didn’t believe it,” safety Josh Metellus said. “I was like, ‘There ain’t no way this is real.’ They’re crazy for letting us get him. I know he’s excited and I’m worried for everybody who’s got to play us because he’s going to be running hard.”

As the Vikings search for solutions in the running game, the hope is that Jones can do for them what he’s been doing against them throughout his career. The splits speak for themselves as Jones has 149 carries for 847 yards in 11 games against the Vikings.

“He’s been doing it for a long time at a very high level and from everything I’ve seen, he hasn’t slowed down even a little bit,” fullback C.J. Ham said. “I’ve competed against him for so long. We’ve had that mutual respect after every game dapping each other up and telling each other to keep going. Now, to be on the same team with him, I think the sky is the limit.”

It’s safe to say Jones has already made a good impression on his teammates. He’s looked explosive in training camp and it’s not hard to envision him making a big impact if he gets some blocking in front of him.

“He’s special,” left tackle Christian Darrisaw said. “It’s a blessing to have a running back like that. He can make anybody miss whether it’s the first level, second level, or third level. We know if we do our job, he’s going to bust it and make a big play.”

The key for Jones will be staying healthy. His struggles with injuries last season has motivated him to take a more proactive approach ahead of this season, and he can already feel it paying off.

“This is the best I’ve felt,’ Jones said. “I’m ready to have the best year of my career.”

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Royce Lewis played in his 58th game of the season on Monday. It may not sound like a lot compared to, say, Willi Castro, who led off for the Twins in his team-leading 136th game of the year. But it is for Lewis, whose 2020 minor league season was wiped out because of the pandemic and has subsequently had every season since then interrupted by injuries.

As he plays into September, it’s been a process for him trying to learn on the fly what he needs to do to keep his body feeling good every day.

“I don’t know how many games I’m going on, but this is the latest in the year that I’ve gone on a stretch like this,” Lewis said. “The normal stuff that (Carlos) Santana’s done for 14 years now, he has all these tips and tricks to get his body right. But I don’t know, for my body, what to do yet.”

It’s been an evolving process.

He’s tried going in the sauna and cold tub before the game. He’s tried those recovery options after the game. He’s constantly making adjustments — and receiving plenty of input while he does so.

“It starts with about 2,000 people trying to tell you, ‘Oh, do this! Try this! Do this! What’s wrong with you? What are you doing?’” Lewis said. “Just because I hit singles now means I’m a different person, I guess. So that’s where it starts. Just trying to filter and try everything out and filter which one works, which one doesn’t.”

Lewis snapped the longest homerless drought of his major league career on Sunday with a big three-run home run in the eighth inning to propel his team to victory. Also in that game, he played second base for the first time in his major league career, another thing he’s learning on the fly.

The third baseman has not hesitated to express his discomfort at the position shift in-season. Because he has such limited experience at the position — he played in one minor league game there and a handful of Arizona Fall League games before starting to get his feet wet pregame in recent weeks — he said he was “terrified,” at second base on Sunday.

“It’s a new thing. So to add to, ‘OK, I’m trying to work on my body,’ and everyone’s talking to me,” Lewis said. “And people are talking to me because I’m hitting singles and they think I’m a bad hitter now. I’ve got so many things going on and now we’re going to add in second. … We have plenty of really good second basemen and I don’t want to mess up our defense just because we’re going to try something new. It’s not spring training or Triple-A for that matter.”

But despite Lewis’ trepidation at the new position, which he says is mostly because he does not want to mess up in the field during pivotal games while in a playoff race, manager Rocco Baldelli said he liked what he saw of the infielder there.

“I thought he looked good,” Baldelli said. “He made all the plays just the way that he’s made them in all the early work that he’s been doing and sometimes when you’re doing something new, it wakes you up, it keeps you on your toes, it gets you going.”

Buxton starts rehab

Byron Buxton’s return appears to be on the horizon.

The outfielder began a rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul on Monday, batting second and playing center field. Tuesday, the Saints have the day off and after that, Baldelli said they’d “see what is to come.” Buxton was 1 for 3 with a walk in seven innings played on Monday.

Buxton has been on the injured list since Aug. 15 with hip inflammation. If all goes well, it seems possible that Buxton could return later on in the Twins’ current road trip, perhaps over the weekend in Kansas City.

“We’re really getting there with Buck,” Baldelli said. “He’s been waiting to get back out there. This is good. It’s the first step, but it’s an important step. Hopefully everything goes well and we can see him back out there with us before you know it.”

Emmanuel Rodriguez promoted

One day in the future, the Twins hope that Buxton and top prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez will share a lineup in Minneapolis. Monday, they did it in St. Paul.

The 21-year-old outfielder was promoted to Triple-A after playing in 37 games for Double-A Wichita earlier in the year. He comes to St. Paul after finishing off a rehab assignment for a thumb injury that has sidelined him for much of the summer.

Before he got injured, the outfielder was hitting .298 with a 1.100 OPS and eight home runs during his time in Wichita. Rodriguez, whom the Twins signed in 2019 as an international free agent, is now the No. 21 prospect overall in Major League Baseball and is ranked third among Twins prospects, behind Walker Jenkins and Brooks Lee.

Briefly

Max Kepler was scratched from Monday’s starting lineup with left knee soreness. Kepler missed time for the same reason last week. … Magnetic resonance imaging taken on Sunday revealed that outfielder Manuel Margot has a mild right adductor tendon strain. The Twins placed Margot on the injured list on Sunday and he will be down for five to seven days from baseball activities to begin with. Margot, a former Ray, made the trip to Florida with his teammates and the Rays played a tribute video to him, prompting him to emerge from the dugout to tip his hat.

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Talking to reporters last week after the Vikings waived reserve quarterback Jaren Hall, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell both confirmed that the intent was to sign him to their practice squad.

Even if the Vikings didn’t feel comfortable with Hall being next in line behind starting Sam Darnold and backup quarterback Nick Mullens, they had visions of developing him over the long haul with the potential to be a key contributor down the road.

“I really want to evaluate what is in his best interest for him to have the most successful career,” O’Connell said last week. “I do hope that involves him staying here and continuing that process.”

It won’t.

As the Vikings took the field at TCO Performance Center on Monday afternoon, Hall was nowhere to be found. The reason? He had officially signed with the Seahawks to join their practice squad.

Originally selected by the Vikings in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, Hall got thrust into action as a rookie, looking completely overwhelmed for prolonged stretches. There were signs of improvement from Hall last month during the exhibition slate as he completed 28 of 46 pass for 339 yards across preseason games against the Raiders, Browns and Eagles.

Some number changes

Now that the active roster is in place, the Vikings have some number changes to report.

The full list of number changes on the active roster included cornerback Stephon Gilmore wearing No. 2, linebacker Brian Asamoah wearing No. 6, kicker Will Reichard wearing No. 16, cornerback Fabian Moreau wearing No. 23, safety Theo Jackson wearing No. 26, and cornerback Dwight McGlothern wearing No. 29.

The full list of number changes on the practice squad included cornerback Nahshon Wright wearing No. 25, safety Bobby McCain wearing No. 28, running back Zavier Scott wearing No. 26, and offensive lineman Ricky Lee III wearing No. 63.

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The expanded Big Ten Conference went 17-1 in Week 1 of the college football season — with the Gophers being the only reason the league wasn’t perfect.

Minnesota’s 19-17 loss to two-point favorite North Carolina will keep stinging because it was a winnable game lost because the U had so many errors on Thursday night at Huntington Bank Stadium.

“We had every opportunity to win that football game, and we didn’t,” head coach P.J. Fleck said Monday. “They took advantage, and we didn’t.”

The loss, in context of the broader conference, might look bad at first glance for Minnesota, but that only comes for those with haste.

The Gophers were one of three total Big Ten teams to play an opponent from one of the now-four power conferences. No. 23 USC had the best win of any conference member (new or old), 27-20 over No. 13 LSU on Sunday night. Meanwhile, No. 8 Penn State beat West Virginia 34-12 on Saturday.

That’s the complete list.

Nine other Big Ten teams played opponents from Group of Five conferences, while six other conference members stepped down and most-often easily beat lower-level Football Championship Subdivision teams. No. 3 Oregon turned some heads with the trouble it had against Idaho in a 24-14 win.

“Let’s not forget this is a really good North Carolina team,” Fleck said. “This team is going to compete for the ACC title. I think we are a really good football team. Kicking off Week 1, I mean, those are the games that you go into and you find out a lot about your team in the middle of the game.

“Then you look after the game, because you are playing a really good opponent — that is almost like looking in a mirror.”

While Fleck said the Gophers had a very physical battle with the Tar Heels, his team won’t be looking at a resemblance of themselves in the next two weeks. Minnesota welcomes FCS-level Rhode Island to Minnesota on Saturday, and in two weeks, Nevada, which is picked to finish last in the Mountain West Conference, comes to the U.

For contrast, Wisconsin was struggling against Western Michigan — trailing 14-13 in fourth quarter — until the Broncos muffed a punt that led to the Badgers pulling away from the Mid-American Conference opponent for a 28-14 win Friday. The Badgers have FCS-level South Dakota on Saturday, followed by No. 5 Alabama.

And No. 25 Iowa led 6-0 against FCS-level Illinois State at halftime — and there were calls for a quarterback change — before the Hawkeyes shifted into a higher gear in a 40-0 win. They play rival Iowa State and Troy before coming to Minneapolis on Sept. 21.

Given the long wait between seasons, college football observers are primed to overreact to Week 1. It happens every year. But some context on who Minnesota faced and who other conference opponents didn’t is important to note.

Another widely held belief is that teams make their biggest jumps in improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. Fleck, however, repeatedly has said he doesn’t subscribe to that adage.

“I’ve watched teams grow up the most after Game 6 to Game 7 — the light bulb went on and they got it,” Fleck said, giving an example. “I remember when I was at Western Michigan and we were (1-4 in 2014) and were down (31-14) against Ball State. But the improvement in that game was very different from the first game to the second game. … I just think every week gives you different data and gives you more data.”

But before Thursday, the Gophers were operating without much frame of reference.

“You have one game; that is what you have to draw from and take that as the concrete data and move on to Game 2,” Fleck said. “Squeeze all the juice from the orange, do everything you can to be better at what you weren’t in Game 1. “

Not created equal

Big Ten teams went 17-1 in Week 1, with the Gophers suffering the only defeat. But not all victories (or losses) come with the same quality of opponent.

Power Four Conference

No. 23 USC 27, No. 13 LSU 20
No. 8 Penn State 34, West Virginia 12
North Carolina 19, Gophers 17

Group of Five conferences

No. 2 Ohio State 52, Akron 6
No. 9 Michigan 30, Fresno State 10
Wisconsin 28, Western Michigan 14
UCLA 16, Hawaii 13
Northwestern 13, Miami (Ohio) 6
Nebraska 40, UTEP 7
Indiana 31, Florida International 7
Michigan State 16, Florida Atlantic 10
Maryland 50, UConn 7

Football Championship Subdivision

No. 3 Oregon 24, Idaho 14
No. 25 Iowa 40, Illinois State 0
Illinois 45, Eastern Illinois 45
Rutgers 44, Howard 7
Washington 23, Weber State 3
Purdue 49, Indiana State 0

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