Latest T.J. Hockenson Update … Is Familiar
Minnesota Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson has worked “off to the side” at training camp, and by all reports, the playmaker has looked wonderful amid his recovery from a torn ACL.
Latest T.J. Hockenson Update … Is Familiar
But that doesn’t mean he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season, which kicks off in four weeks.
According to ESPN, Hockenson will likely miss the first few or several games of the season. “It appears that Hockenson will not be ready in time to start the regular season. But the team believes it will have him back at some point during the first half of the season,” Dan Graziano wrote. “The estimates I heard in my reporting ranged from three to seven missed games. The latter of those would keep him out until early November, as the Vikings have a bye in Week 6.”
And the ESPN update is what onlookers have expected for most of the offseason. Recently, some enthusiasm suggested Hockenson could possibly be ready sooner than expected. Graziano pumped the brakes on that theory.
Detroit Lions defender Kerby Joseph, a former teammate of Hockenson’s, injured him in December, ending his 2023 campaign and probably jeopardizing the beginning of this year’s hurrah. Many Vikings fans have prepared for a Hockenson-less start to 2024, and that outcome might actually bleed further into the season than most realize.
A likely outcome could be the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, which would sideline Hockenson for six games. And if that occurs, Minnesota would turn to a hodgepodge of fill-in tight ends, including Robert Tonyan, Josh Oliver, Johnny Mundt, Nick Muse, and N’Keal Harry. Newcomers Trey Knox and Sammis Reyes also live on the current 90-man roster.
Hockenson was on the brink of becoming the Vikings’ first 1,000+ yard tight end in 42 years before the ACL tear in 2023. Joe Senser achieved the mark in 1981, and Hockenson fell 40 yards short. When wide receiver Justin Jefferson was injured for seven games in October and November, Hockenson was often the glue that kept the offense together.
Meanwhile, he commented on his recovery last month. “It’s been great, yeah. We’re running now, doing a lot of change-of-direction stuff,” Hockenson said on Bussin with the Boys three weeks ago. Hockenson said he felt like a “normal person” again and added: “At the point I’m at now, I feel really comfortable about being able to come back and be the player I was and even be better. That’s huge for me.”
The show’s hosts attempted to nail down Hockenson on a tentative return date of Week 5 in London, though the veteran Viking quickly backed out of any concrete timetable. Instead, he insisted the recovery was trending well and in the right direction on the whole.
Generally speaking, fans shouldn’t expect Hockenson to be ready out of the gate in 2024. The recovery will extend into the beginning of the season, perhaps even after the team’s Week 6 bye.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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