T.J. Hockenson was traded to the Minnesota Vikings after Week 7 of the 2022 season. He was traded alongside a 2023 and 2024 fourth round pick. The Vikings gave up a 2023 second round pick, as well as a 2024 third round pick. He booked it over to Minneapolis, and became an instant contributor for the Vikings offense. Honestly, the only tight end that was playing better than him in the second half of last season was Travis Kelce. Yet Hockenson is being heavily disrespected by the fans and media so far in this offseason.
All Kinds of Rankings
There are a few tight ends where I believe that it is completely reasonable to say they are currently better than T.J. Hockenson. Kelce, Kittle, and Mark Andrews. That leaves him at fourth best in the league, minimum. However I would make the argument that Hockenson is better than Mark Andrews, as Andrews has been the number one weapon on the Ravens for the past few years. Hockenson now plays with Justin Jefferson, and still produced great numbers. It isn’t completely unreasonable to compare Darren Waller to Hockenson, yet I would rather have Hockenson based on what we’ve seen from the two of them in the last couple seasons.
The most frustrating claim is when people try to say that Dallas Goedert is better than T.J. Hockenson. The numbers simply do not back that up, and there is not one thing that Goedert does better than Hock. Some Eagles fans have denounced that claim, but a few bold supporters seem to be overvaluing Goedert by a little bit. Another one is Kyle Pitts, who definitely has a huge amount of potential, but we haven’t seen evidence that he is better than Hockenson yet.
According to our voters, the gap between Travis Kelce and George Kittle has widened 👀
Execs, coaches, scouts and players ranked the NFL's top 10 tight ends for 2023 via @JFowlerESPN ➡️ https://t.co/lwRv8Orjhe pic.twitter.com/6vPo0qrxYr
— ESPN (@espn) July 13, 2023
Big Things Coming
People can say what they want, but Vikings fans know that Hockenson changed the offense completely. He is going to be a huge part of what they have established going forward. I have no doubt that he will silence the doubters next year. Giving them no choice but to respect his abilities, and admit that he is comfortably a top five tight end in the NFL.
