EAGAN — From the moment the Minnesota Vikings landed TJ Hockenson, it was like the football stars aligned perfectly.
He caught nine passes for 70 yards in his debut against Washington despite having been acquired only a few days earlier in a trade with Detroit and finished with at least five receptions in seven of his 11 games. When the New York Giants put all their attention toward Justin Jefferson in the playoffs, Hockenson grabbed 10 passes for 129 yards.
He showed the ability to line up all over the field, play in whatever personnel package was required and connected with quarterback Kirk Cousins like they were old pals. In the offseason, he went to Wild and Twins games and let his hair grow out until he looked like the logo.
So when the Vikings signed Hockenson to a four-year deal with an average annual value of $17.125 million, making him the highest paid tight end in the NFL, it seemed only right that he would remain in purple long term.
Hockenson said the locker room and organizational culture that has been implemented in Minnesota played a role in him signing on the dotted line.
“A big reason starts with the Wilf family and what they set out to accomplish by bringing [O’Connell] and [Kwesi Adofo-Mensah] in and set a culture that really has morphed into a brotherhood, in this locker room it’s a brotherhood,” Hockenson said. “We all have each other’s back, every step of the way we’re rooting for each other…you don’t experience that very often in this league because its a cutthroat business.”
Any time a player sets the high water mark with a contract there will be debates about the dollar figures. Does he deserve more than player X, Y or Z? But the actual structure of his deal via OverTheCap.com shows cap hits of $4.9 million this year, $14.1 in 2024, $15.1 in 2025 and then $19 and $21 million in the final two years of the deal.
On the matter of whether he’s worth those numbers (he is scheduled to have the seventh highest cap hit among tight ends in 2024), he was the second most targeted tight end in football last year. However, there are more subtle ways that Hockenson impacts the Vikings’ offense than his (very good) box score numbers. Out of 24 contested passes thrown his way as a Viking, he caught 14 of them (per PFF). Without even including his contested catches in Detroit, he still led the NFL in that category. He also had the third most first downs in the league among tight ends. He averaged 12.6 yards per reception on third down and 50% of his third down targets turned into first downs.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said that he was a fan of Hockenson before he arrived mid-season in 2022 and then saw up close how he could be a versatile mismatch player.
“Where the window really opened for me was getting around Matthew [Stafford] in L.A. and studying a lot of his tape, seeing T.J. show up, and certain types of things that he did,” O’Connell said. “T.J. is a dynamic route running tight end that can win routes in one-on-one settings versus linebackers, safeties. We can move him all over the formation. I do think he’s a three-down player. I think he can have a role in and has shown to be willing and able in the run game and then the play pass game.”
This year will present some new wrinkles in the offense for Hockenson as they add Josh Oliver to the mix, who is a strong blocker and could allow Hock to move around as a receiver even more often.
“When you pair him in that room with those other three tight ends, you feel like you’ve got a complete group to really be able to attack a lot of different ways and that room has a little bit of a feel to me of kind of the safety room, where there’s versatile skill sets, guys do things really well,” O’Connell said. “You’ve got a player that can do everything well at a really high level, kind of leading the charge in T.J.”
Hockenson called it a “stressful process,” which included not participating in 11-on-11s throughout the summer (though those absences were technically attributed to ear and back issues). He’s glad it’s over — and reiterated that he has his sights set on September 10th vs. Tampa Bay.
“I knew I wanted to be here, we just had to figure out how to make that happen,” he said. “Very special for me being from Iowa to be here only four hours away from home and be around family and be able able to buy into this city and understand that I’m here for a long time. That was my goal, to be here for a long time….I’m excited to play football and not have to work about anything else.”
