T.J.Hockenson

Oct 12

The Vikings tight end suffered a concussion early in the game and didn’t return.

Minnesota started this season similar to other recent years, with a two-man tight end rotation with Hockenson as the primary receiving option and Josh Oliver as the main blocker. Oliver landed on injured reserve two weeks ago, leading to Gavin Bartholomew being the second tight end last week. Hockenson received a boost in snaps, making him a borderline fantasy starter. Ben Yurosek returned to practice from injured reserve on Wednesday and was activated Saturday, giving Minnesota three tight ends. It was good fortune for Minnesota that it had Yurosek, because the Vikings needed both tight ends this week. Hockenson played only two snaps. This left Batholomew playing in Hockenson’s usual role, and Yurosek occupying Oliver’s usual role. Bartholomew had a decent game, catching five passes for 33 yards. This would usually make Bartholomew a waiver-wire target in deeper leagues, but Minnesota has its bye week next week. That gives Hockenson two weeks to recover, giving him a good chance of returning as the team's lead receiving tight end for Week 7.

Matthew Coller·Oct 10

What KOC has said is that they adjusted play calling to what the Dolphins defense was doing and started hitting all those open areas in the zone. Most of the passes did go to TJ Hockenson but that’s what the Dolphins were giving up, so they took it. That also happened to play right into Murray’s hands. Not that Miami tells us everything but it’s proof of concept that when things are right for Murray and the ball is coming out on time, he can slice up a defense with underneath passes. Is this a bad thing? Well, it doesn’t have to be. Right now Mahomes and Murray have the same Average Depth of Target. But it can’t all be underneath. He has to trust some of those throws that KOC sets up for him in tighter windows. So it’s possible for this offense to work in quick game successfully but usually the way it has to happen is that deeper routes open up TJ Hockenson. We did see KOC use some clever short stuff when Carson Wentz was in at QB last year at times, so it’s in there somewhere. I just don’t think they’ve ever really had the dudes with great short-area quickness and YAC to be an underneath offense.