Vikings TE T.J. Hockenson Thrilled By New Opportunity: 'There's Nowhere I'd Rather Be'
T.J. Hockenson has seen the memes.
When he was traded from the Lions to the Vikings on Tuesday, he went from 1-6 and the bottom of the NFC North to 6-1 and the top of the division in an instant. That's a pretty nice change, as several people on social media pointed out.
"I saw the memes of that," he said, laughing, "It's cool."
Hockenson is excited to be in Minnesota for several reasons. For starters, as an Iowa native, he'll be closer to a lot of his family and friends. His dad grew up a Vikings fan and both of his parents attend all of his games, so getting to home games in Minneapolis will be easier for them than driving all the way from Iowa to Detroit.
More than anything else, he's thrilled by the opportunity to join a contending team where he'll have a chance to win games and potentially make a deep run in the postseason.
"I’m super excited to be here," Hockenson said on Wednesday, his first full day in the Vikings' facility. "I’m just excited to have a piece in this puzzle. A lot of good guys around here. This facility is beautiful, so I’m just excited to be here, man. There’s nowhere I’d rather be."
Related: What the T.J. Hockenson Trade Means For the Vikings This Year and Beyond
Hockenson, the No. 8 pick in the 2019 draft out of Iowa, enjoyed his 3.5 seasons in Detroit. There just wasn't a lot of winning involved. The Lions, a perennial cellar dweller who last won a playoff game in 1991, went 12-42-2 during Hockenson's time with the team. If the Vikings go 6-4 the rest of the way, they'll finish with 12 wins this season.
"That’s really what we’re here to do is go somewhere and win some games," he said. "That’s kind of the first time I’ve been able to say that, so I’m pretty excited. I really am. It’s cool to be here."
Hockenson said he had a sense that he might be traded, but he certainly wasn't expecting to end up with the Vikings. Now that he's in Minnesota, he feels like it's a great fit.
"Right when I got here last night I was like, 'This is pretty sweet,'" he said.
Hockenson joins a 6-1 team that sits atop the NFC North and has a great opportunity to be one of the top seeds in the conference when the playoffs come around, provided they can keep finding ways to win games. Not only that, but he's joining an offense where he'll catch passes from Kirk Cousins alongside talented skill-position weapons like Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook, and Adam Thielen — four players who have made multiple Pro Bowls. Along with Brian O'Neill (2021) and Hockenson (2020), over half of the Vikings' starting offense now consists of Pro Bowlers. That doesn't even include linemen Christian Darrisaw and Ezra Cleveland, who have been excellent this season.
From a football standpoint, Hockenson should fit right in and complement the pieces around him. He's likely to benefit from the attention defenses have to give players like Jefferson, but his presence will open things up for those players, too.
"I don't think there's any telling (how good this offense can be)," Hockenson said. "I think you've got a lot of key guys, Thielen, you've got J.J., you got Dalvin in the backfield. I'm just here to (be) a piece and help those guys. J.J. expands the field, they're trying to play two-high and leave safeties, but it's like, if I can do something in the middle of the field and make them get out of that, it just opens up everybody. It's complementary football when you have players like this."
The Vikings made the move to go out and get Hockenson because they feel like he's a perfect fit for their offense — a potential missing piece, of sorts. As a three-down tight end who can block, run routes, and generate yards after the catch at a high level, he'll add a ton of versatility to what Kevin O'Connell can dial up.
"Adding a player of T.J.’s caliber in a moment where we’re really kind of coming into our groove, I see a fit with a lot of the things we try to do," O'Connell said.
"Situationally, I see some real opportunities for him — third down, red zone, 2-minute, things like that."
O'Connell and the Vikings talk all the time about marrying the run and the pass together. Tight ends are at the forefront of that mindset. When you have a dynamic athlete at that position who can do a bit of everything, it makes your entire offense harder to defend.
"You think about the keeper game, screen game, play pass game," O'Connell said. "Running the football in this league, a lot of times, requires the tight ends to be a part of it, but it also puts them in a position to have multiple roles off of the plays that start out looking the same that are different. ... I think he’s proven that he can handle that workload (as a blocker) as well as be a real factor in the pass game."
When Hockenson woke up on Tuesday, he was riding a five-game losing streak and wasn't sure how he fit into the Lions' long-term plans. When he woke up on Wednesday, he was on a team that has won five in a row and is thrilled to add him to the mix, both this season and beyond.
The immediate focus is on this Sunday's game against the Commanders. But Hockenson already has his sights set on experiencing the NFL playoffs for the first time in a couple months.
"I'm excited to be a part of a program that we can do something with," he said. "We're looking beyond 17 (regular season games). Looking down the road, for sure. We gotta take it week by week, obviously, too, and win the next one, but listen, there's no telling where this place can go. I'm just trying to be a piece of that."
Hockenson's rapid-fire preparation for the Commanders is underway
Now the work begins.
Hockenson arrived in Minnesota on Tuesday night and began the hectic process of trying to get up to speed in a new offense as fast as possible. This is different than acquiring a player in the spring or even around cutdown day at the end of August. Hockenson is joining a 6-1 team that is right in the middle of its season. The Vikings have already had their bye week. They're headed east in a few days to play the Commanders, a team Hockenson has already faced once this season. After that, they play three games in 12 days against the Bills, Cowboys, and Patriots, who have a combined record of 16-7.
Hockenson hasn't even met all of his teammates and coaches yet. He has to get to know the people around him while diving into the playbook and getting ready to play a game in a completely different offense in just four days.
"I’m grinding," Hockenson said. "I got in last night, they gave me my iPad. I’m trying to learn this offense as much as I can. Obviously there’s a lot of ins and outs to it, but football’s football. This will be my fourth offense now that I’ve been in throughout my career. So just learning new terminology. Football, there’s outside zone, there’s schemes. There’s route running. There’s concepts. It’s just what you call it. It’s really just learning a new language, and I’m trying to learn that as fast as I can."
It's not all completely foreign to Hockenson. He's been in this division since 2019, playing six games against the Vikings in his career (he missed one matchup his rookie year while injured). Because of that, he knows a bit about what to expect and is familiar with guys like Harrison Smith from playing against each other over the years. Hockenson says he connected quickly with O'Connell, mentioning their shared relationship with Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was with Hockenson for two seasons in Detroit.
Still, it's going to take a lot of non-stop work to get up to speed. Most of the Vikings' starters have been learning this offense and gaining comfort in it for nearly eight months. Hockenson is just starting now, so he has a lot of lost time to make up for. He said it feels a bit like drinking from a fire hydrant as he prepares for Sunday's game.
"I expect to know as much as I can (by Sunday)," Hockenson said. "I expect to know the game plan. That’s really the expectation of myself. It definitely takes a little time, and it takes a lot of grinding, a lot of being able to hear — because it’s one thing to be able to see it on paper and say, ‘OK, oh, yeah, I got it,' but then you hear it and you have to mentally decipher everything. It’s a different story. So it’s definitely a process and I’m starting. Listen, we’re one install in. There’s three throughout the week usually. So I’m just trying to take it day by day. I’m swimming, but that’s a good thing for sure."
O'Connell said Hockenson's role in Sunday's game will come down to how things go this week, mentioning that Johnny Mundt played a great game against the Cardinals and the Vikings can elevate Jacob Hollister or Nick Muse from the practice squad to have another tight end available.
"We’ll just see how T.J. handles it," O'Connell said. "The good news is, it’s not one of those situations where he hasn’t played or anything like that, he is absolutely game ready, he looks like he’s in great shape, feeling really healthy and ready to roll. He’s really excited. It was really fun to make that call yesterday. It’s the first time for me really making truly a trade like that where in-season — I know we traded for Jalen Reagor as well — but the idea of bringing in a player like T.J., a Pro Bowl-caliber player to a team that’s 6-1 right now, I think his teammates are really excited to have him here, I know we are as a coaching staff, and now he’s ready to hit the ground running."
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