You wouldn’t be wrong to be excited about T.J. Hockenson‘s nine-catch, 70-yard debut on the road against the Washington Commanders. With just four full days of preparation, Hockenson made an immediate impact on an offense that needed a shot in the arm. Examine below, his route running, blocking, and general athleticism came in handy for a Vikings offense that had little else going for it (save Justin Jefferson, of course).
That’s all very encouraging, and it should absolutely be your main takeaway from Hockenson’s debut. This is not an article about all the things Hockenson did well, but that doesn’t mean that those things aren’t important. You probably already know about them. But Hockenson made a litany of mistakes in the Commanders game that held the offense back. I’ve identified six of them, and this article will explain what Hockenson’s assignments were and why he may have gotten mixed up.
Two important caveats before we get started with that. First, Hockenson’s game had a lot more good than bad in it. This article shouldn’t dissuade you from getting excited about him. He had just four days to prepare for this game, and a few mistakes are totally understandable. If he makes the same number of errors next week, though, that’s less understandable. So seeing what the mistakes were and the impact they have is important to help keep an eye on this.
Second, this sort of analysis involves a lot of guesswork. Unless you are literally a member of the Minnesota Vikings’ offense in some capacity, you can’t know for sure what instructions or coaching points Hockenson is working off of. That said, a lot is universal in the NFL. I have to cite Bobby Peters’ manual to last year’s McVay offense, which appears to map perfectly onto this year’s Vikings offense (to the surprise of few). We can make some pretty good educated guesses, so long as we don’t present them as anything more certain.
With all that in mind, here are the plays that Hockenson busted.
Outside Zone Strong
Half of Hockenson’s busts came on zone runs. Twice, Hockenson blocked the wrong person on outside zone. In a McVay-style zone scheme, the tight end’s job on outside zone is to block the first off-ball threat. It’s up to Hockenson to determine who that is. In both cases, Hockenson goes to block the wrong player before realizing his mistake all too late, and both plays are ruined as a result.
A similar problem occurred on a zone weak rep near the goal line. Hockenson, on the back side of the play this time, will typically have a specific instruction to react to the way Washington’s nickel corner reacts to the jet motion. He doesn’t respond to the motion, and the free man makes the tackle.
Keeper Delay
The Vikings will be a rollout-heavy team for as long as Kirk Cousins is their quarterback, so execution on these plays is key. McVay calls rollouts “keepers,” and you may hear Cousins call them “bootlegs,” but it’s all the same concept we’ve watched on heavy rotation since 2019. Fake a zone run one way, then Cousins rolls out the other way, and usually has a three-level read of some sort. In this example, Hockenson runs the wrong side of a horizontal stretch.
This is the only instance I could identify of Hockenson running the wrong route. Obviously his performance downfield on the other plays greatly outweighs this. The Vikings will almost certainly call this play again with Hockenson and Johnny Mundt, and I’ll be happy to see it run properly.
Busted Pass Protection
As the in-line tight end in pass protection, any secondary blitzing will often fall to you to pick up. The Vikings are running a play called “wave,” where Hockenson could either be in pass protection or just chipping on his way to an outlet route. Either way, he’s too late to recognize the corner blitz, and Cousins takes a free runner right on the chin.
TE Screen
Screens are notoriously difficult to execute properly, and the Vikings have had plenty of trouble. The culprit I see most often is simple timing. Screens require precise timing and spacing to work properly. If Hockenson gets the ball too early, he won’t have any blockers. If he’s too late, the blockers will have already revealed the play, and the defense will easily be able to hunt him down. This timing is pretty far off, but it’s not really fair to expect it to be better.
Moving forward, this will likely be the hardest problem to solve. Screens need to be rehearsed a lot more than is wise to spend during limited in-season practice time, so unless the Vikings decide to specifically emphasize them, it will probably be an issue all year. It’s a tertiary part of the playbook, and gameplan factors will almost always be more important week to week.
To reiterate, Hockenson’s debut had a lot more good than bad. However, the bad is pretty interesting to learn about. Most of us accept that a new player will be slow to acclimate to a new team when traded mid-season. That’s appropriate, but we can take it a step further and understand how those struggles manifest. It’s not likely that this is a persistent problem with Hockenson, but if it is, we now know what to watch for.
