Mattison could take on a larger share of the Vikings' running backs snaps beginning in Sunday's game against the Saints after Cam Akers suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in Minnesota's Week 9 win over Atlanta, Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com reports.
Mattison had already started all nine of Minnesota's games to date, but he had seen his snap share trend downward since the Vikings acquired Akers from the Rams on Sept. 21. After playing north of 70 percent of the snaps in each of the Vikings' first three contests, Mattison cleared that bar just once in the subsequent six games while Akers averaged 8.2 touches per contest during that stretch. The Vikings are expected to break in Ty Chandler as their new No. 2 back, but given that Chandler has largely been relegated to special-teams work through his first two NFL seasons, he may not be a good bet to immediately assume Akers' vacated touches. With that in mind, Mattison could take on workloads closer to what he handled from Weeks 1 through 3, though fantasy managers shouldn't count on him to be efficient with his opportunities. Mattison is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry on the season and has yet to score a rushing touchdown, though he's been more productive as a receiver (23-158-3 line on 34 targets).