When you think of the word “underappreciated,” you don’t often think of a team’s star player. Those are the guys who get all the headlines, and “underappreciated” is usually reserved for the guy who is making important contributions to the team that are going unnoticed—or at least not noticed enough—by fans and the media.
However, even star players can be overlooked by fans of other teams throughout the league, and that’s what CBS Sports’ Jeff Kerr set out to rectify with his look at the most underappreciated stars for each team. He singled out tight end T.J. Hockenson for the Minnesota Vikings, and for good reason. In Kerr’s words:
The Vikings are going to miss Hockenson if he misses the start of the season recovering from his ACL injury. There is no timetable for Hockenson’s return, as Minnesota will have to find a way to replace one of the top pass-catching tight ends in the game.
Minnesota knows how valuable Hockenson is to the offense, as he finished with a career-high 95 catches for 960 yards in 2023. Only Hockenson and Travis Kelce have finished with 80+ catches and 900+ receiving yards in each of the last two seasons, adding even more importance as a pass catcher in the Vikings offense.
The Vikings need Hockenson back if they are going to compete for the NFC North in 2024, and help J.J. McCarthy’s development in the process.
While it may seem strange to think of Hockenson as “underrated”, it becomes a bit more apparent when you lay out his contributions like that. Hockenson has clearly been one of the best tight ends in the league during his tenure with the Vikings, but he often gets overlooked in conversations about the best tight end in the NFL.
Missing time this season certainly won’t help his case in that regard, but if he can come back and be at the same level he was pre-injury, he’s going to be instrumental in the Viking’s offense and in the development of rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy — whenever he finally sees the field.
