T.J. Hockenson didn’t need a perfect setup to make his mark in Week 1. He just needed to feel the opening, slide into it, and give Carson Wentz a window.
That’s exactly how Minnesota’s touchdown against Green Bay came together. Hockenson said the score that trimmed the Packers’ lead to 22-17 was a “feel play.” As he got near the end zone, he sensed space, Wentz spotted it, and the backup quarterback threaded the ball between three defenders.
“He told me to be aware for it,” Hockenson explained after the game. “So, I felt space, and I went to space. Really, I was supposed to be kind of up that hash [against two high safeties], but he felt it, I felt it, and we were on the same page.”
That connection mattered because Wentz was thrown into the fire far earlier than Minnesota planned. Kyler Murray and J.J.
McCarthy spent the preseason battling for the starting job, leaving Wentz with limited work alongside the first unit. Even so, the 11-year veteran looked more ready than McCarthy, who is in his second season, and the Vikings had Wentz lined up as the backup for Week 1 against the Packers.
Then Murray went down with a first-quarter injury, and Wentz was forced to take over. From there, he helped engineer a comeback that the Vikings will remember, and having a dependable tight end clearly helped.
That’s where Hockenson’s value shows up. Minnesota traded two picks for him in 2022, then asked the eighth-year tight end to take a pay cut this offseason.
His original $21.3 million cap hit would have been the highest among tight ends in the league, but after the restructure he is on a $7 million base salary with a $15.6 million cap hit. He also voided the final year of his deal, which makes him a free agent next year.
The reduced contract reflects the drop in production that followed his injury. Since then, Hockenson has 92 catches for 893 yards and three touchdowns in 25 games. Before that knee injury, he had 181 receptions for 1,874 yards and 11 touchdowns in 32 games over the previous two seasons.
He’s not the same player he was before Kerby Joseph’s low hit ended his 2023 season, but he still gave Wentz a trustworthy outlet when the offense needed one.
Not everything looked clean for Wentz, either. Early in the game, he missed a wide-open Jordan Addison and instead threw to a tightly covered Justin Jefferson on the sideline. Some of the timing issues seemed tied to the fact that Wentz had not gotten enough work with the starters.
That’s part of the strange setup Minnesota created with its quarterback competition. Murray entered on a one-year prove-it deal, while McCarthy was treated as an in-house reclamation project. Instead of backing up the winner, McCarthy ended up as the emergency third quarterback.
The move made sense if the Vikings wanted to keep working with him after a disappointing first season last year. But it also meant Wentz was one snap away from playing in a Week 1 divisional game.
“It was a different process, I’m not gonna lie,” said Wentz, “but I’ve stayed as ready as I could.
“I was here all of OTAs at least this year, so that helped,” he continued. “But in a given week in a game plan, the backup never takes some of these reps. … So, we were doing it live today.”
Hockenson’s decline since the injury is not all on him. J.J. McCarthy should have used him more last year, and in 2023 the Vikings cycled through Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens, and Jaren Hall after Kirk Cousins went down for the season.
Now 29, Hockenson is still in his prime, even if a full return to his pre-injury form seems unlikely. What he can still offer is exactly what Minnesota needs: a steady target who understands how to work with a quarterback. Murray showed that kind of chemistry with Trey McBride in Arizona, and the Vikings can hope for something similar once Hockenson returns.
For Hockenson, the edge remains in the feel part of the game. He still knows how to find the soft spots and turn them into something bigger.
“A lot of football is being able to feel holes in the defense, and being able to exploit those,” he said. “On paper, it says to do one thing, but when you feel those [holes] in that kind of moment when you need to score, it kind of changes the game.”
That instinct helped spark Minnesota’s comeback, and it’s the kind of skill that can still pay off in a contract year.
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Caleb Banks Is Already Testing Vikings Fans Patience For One Reason
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The Vikings are still treating Banks as a long-term project, though, and that matters for a front office that clearly drafted him for his physical tools as much as any immediate role. Under defensive coordinator Brian Flores, he is continuing to work through the early growing pains that often come with a young defender adjusting to the NFL, and the organization appears willing to let that process play out. The question for fans is how long the wait lasts before the promise starts to show up on the field. [Read more 🡒]