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(Photo by Christian Petersen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Minnesota Vikings<\/a> tight end T.J. Hockenson<\/a> commented on his contract status on Wednesday afternoon, with preseason action and the regular season looming.<\/p>\n Hockenson is in the final year of his contract and is one of several Vikings stars that are in line for new deals. Wide receiver Jordan Addison<\/a> discussed his contract a bit on Tuesday afternoon, and now Hockenson weighed in on where things stand in regards to contract talks as well.<\/p>\n Vikings Star Likes Where He Is At<\/p>\n Despite some struggles over the past couple of seasons, the tight end loves the Vikings, and loves where he is currently at in the organization. He said as much when he met with the media on Wednesday.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always said this very openly. I love this place, I\u2019ve really enjoyed being here, playing for KO, this locker room, being around these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n The Vikings restructured Hockenson\u2019s contract in March.<\/a> The two sides agreed to a contract that lowered a $21.3 million salary down to 16.3 million. The $21.3 million figure was a league-high figure at the time. At the very least, the Vikings were able to gain a little bit more flexibility.<\/p>\n The Iowa product figures to be the starting tight end for the 2026 season. The tight end is looking to bounce back after but was a difficult year last year. He was still coming back from a shoulder injury in 2025, and that played a part in his career lows. He caught 51 receptions for 438 yards and three touchdowns. On top of this, he suffered a shoulder injury late in the 2025 season. This caused him to miss the final two games of the season.<\/p>\n On top of this, the contract itself has not been well-received by national outlets. Hockenson\u2019s current contract ranked ninth on Bleacher Report\u2019s 10 Worst Contracts list. The four-year $66 million extension signed in 2023 did not sit well with Bleacher Report\u2019s Brad Gagnon.<\/a> The latter cited just three touchdowns since the start of 2024 and the fact that Hockenson has fallen short of 500 yards in each of the last two seasons. The fact that he is the third-highest-paid tight end in the sport also was subject to scrutiny.<\/p>\n Test Coming Up For Vikings TE<\/p>\n The real test for the tight end is going to be how well he bounces back from his injury. The knee injury has been a problem for him during his tenure with the team. He first suffered the injury in 2023, and he spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons trying to work back from it. This could be a chance for him to show that the knee is healthy and will not be an issue. How the injury itself works out is going to be crucial.<\/p>\n Despite his downturn in production, Hockenson can be a serviceable tight end when fully healthy. The Vikings have a lot of decisions coming up regarding contracts for their star players, and he is going to be part of a major decision. A down year could force the Vikings to seek other options. A good year could allow the Vikings to put reasonable faith in their plans at the position for the future. Either way, the decision will be interesting.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDanny Jaillet<\/a> Danny Jaillet is a sportswriter with more than 15 years experience in the industry. He has been featured on Fox Sports, USA Today, and Yahoo Sports among others. He graduated from Worcester State University with a B.A. in communications and a minor in writing. More about Danny Jaillet<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Christian Petersen\/Getty Images) Minnesota Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson commented on his contract status on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":["post-965172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-football","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117044718072836435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}