The Minnesota Vikings have released Zavier Scott, and the move leaves Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason and Demond Claiborne as the likely three halfbacks on the 53-man roster. It is a clean cut in a room that had five names in it just days ago, and it shifts the final shape of the backfield as roster decisions come due.
The timing matters because this is the part of the calendar when every small move changes the next one. Alec Lewis of The Athletic reported the release, and the Vikings have been working toward a final group from a preseason running back room that included Jones, Mason, Scott, Claiborne and Jermar Jefferson.
What makes the decision stand out is not just who is leaving, but what the group produced before the cuts. Minnesota’s running backs finished the preseason with 233 yards on 57 attempts, good for 4.1 yards per carry, a line that looks ordinary until the wider picture is put around it. The production was nearly non-existent, yet the current shape of the roster still points to three halfbacks rather than four, a sign the Vikings are comfortable trusting volume elsewhere and are not treating preseason rushing totals as a reason to keep adding bodies.
That leaves one obvious question hanging over the move. The Vikings could still look for another running back for depth after Scott is not included in the 53-man roster, but there is no confirmation they will do it. In practical terms, that means the release may be less about ending a competition than about reopening it somewhere else, especially if the team decides it wants another back behind Jones, Mason and Claiborne before the roster is final.
Scott’s path to this point was short, but the result fits the way roster battles usually end. Carson Steele, a useful comparison on the other side of the league, played in all 17 games as a rookie for the Kansas City Chiefs and started three games, yet he still found himself on the move when jobs tightened. He earned first-team All-MAC honors at Ball State in 2022, transferred to UCLA and carried the ball 167 times for 847 yards and six touchdowns, then added 17 catches for 163 yards and two more scores. He signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted rookie in 2024, carried 56 times for 183 yards, caught seven passes for 26 yards, spent last season on the Chiefs' practice squad before being released in January, and later landed a futures deal with the Eagles. Even that did not secure his place, as he got only one carry for two yards in the Eagles' preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens.
For Minnesota, the picture is simpler and tougher: the backfield is narrowing, and the job now is deciding whether three halfbacks are enough.
