Hockenson’s NFL dream comes true with Lions
Maybe this was a marriage that was just meant to be between the Detroit Lions and tight end T.J. Hockenson.
Five years ago, the Lions took Eric Ebron with the 10th pick overall and after four up-anddown seasons he was cut by Lions general manager Bob Quinn, who was not in charge when he was drafted. On Thursday, Quinn didn’t hesitate when Hockenson was still on the board and took the University of Iowa product with the eighth pick overall. That’s the highest a tight end has been taken since Vernon Davis went sixth overall in 2006.
“It’s two totally different players,” Quinn said in comparing Hockenson and Ebron. “(Hockenson) really checked every box that we had in terms of the evaluation process from on field, to third down, to red area, to blocking, to special teams, to culture, to intelligence, to work ethic. You name it, he checked basically every box throughout the whole process.”
There had been plenty of conversations leading up to the draft between the Lions and the sixfoot-five, 250-pound Hockenson, who just happened to be sporting socks from his favourite movie on the night Detroit made him its top pick — the Lion King.
“I think the night before I left, I packed and I was like, ‘Oh, these socks are pretty sweet and they’re Lion King, so I’m going to wear them,’” Hockenson said on Friday. “The Lion King has been my favourite movie ever since I was little, you know, Disney. So, I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’
“It’s awesome. There’s a lot of signs that came to this with the drop of the puck, or whatever, and then the socks. All I had was blue (clothing), so I was meant to be here and I’m very excited to start this.”
From the small town of Chariton, Iowa, which has a population under 5,000, Hockenson can recall the links to Detroit he never realized growing up.
“I was part of a Little League baseball team and we were the Tigers,” the 21-year-old Hockenson said. “I had the Old English D on the hat and I wore that everywhere. And then, I played a lot of NHL video games when I was really little with my cousins and I was always the (Detroit) Red Wings. There’s been a few signs, that I’d say to this point.” At Friday’s introductory press conference, he was sporting a Lions cap with a club pin on his blazer and a blue dress shirt less than 24 hours after realizing his dream of being an NFL player. “Isn’t that cool?” Hockenson said. “I mean really, you get to play football for a living. I mean, that’s the best feeling in the world. There’s no words to describe that.”
After signing 24-year-old tight end Jesse James to a four-year deal for US$25 million in free agency last month, the Lions want to unleash Hockenson and James as a two-headed monster. “Yeah, put them on the field together,” Quinn said. “Two really good tight ends. Probably work a lot of 12 personnel, which is one back, two tight ends. I think that’s something that our offence can really work through.
“We can switch easily to 11 personnel and have Danny (Amendola) out there with our receivers, and then pick your poison to what tight end you want to put on the field. The tight end’s a position, kind of like running back, you’re not going to play 100 per cent of the snaps. You’re going to be out there as much as you can, but it’s going to give us a lot of versatility to do a lot of different things on offence and that’s kind of one of the things that kept kind of pointing us back to T.J.”