Earlier this week, we discussed ESPN’s list of safeties not including a single mention of Harrison Smith. On Thursday morning, the list of top tight ends came out and Minnesota Vikings’ T.J. Hockenson was included. He ranked sixth on the list.
Hockenson was viewed highly by some with a top ranking of four, but others didn’t have him ranked at all. He improved his ranking by one from last year where he ranked seventh. Ahead of him are:
- Travis Kelce
- George Kittle
- Mark Andrews
- Dallas Goedert
- Darren Waller
The writeup from Jeremy Fowler described how important Hockenson was for the Vikings’ offense.
Hockenson is a cornerstone player for Minnesota’s offense.
After the Vikings executed the rare in-division trade with Detroit to acquire Hockenson, the tight end rewarded the team with 62 receptions for 583 yards from Weeks 8 to 18. Both were top-two finishes among tight ends, and Hockenson finished the year with career highs in receptions (86) and receiving yards (914).
“He’s a good player but nothing dynamic to him in the pass game and average in the run game,” an NFC exec said. “He’s the classic case of a player that does everything well but nothing exceptional.”
A high-ranking NFL official added: “Really dynamic route runner with speed, size, quickness — attacks football in the air and has some better yards after the catch than given credit for. Decent blocker, three-down-impact player.”
Six feels right in the range for Hockenson, who arguably could become TE 2 or 3 next season with a great year. Tight ends normally don’t blossom until years four and five due to the nature of the position.
