Remember his first game as a Lion against the Cardinals? He never played that well after that. He also had an injury, you know. He’s not catching in the middle now, and he’s not getting accurate throws either. Has his speed reduced after the injury? How many drops did he have yesterday? He might feel really bad too, especially since he can’t even do a decent job
In my eyes, Hockenson is overrated as a player. Coming out of college, he was regarded as an excellent pass catcher and aggressive run blocker. In the NFL though, he has always had decent hands but prone to pretty bad drops. Worse, he has never been a good run blocker.
I think the Lions decision to move on from him was knowing they could avoid having to pay him and use the draft capital to find a TE who actually does what they need. I don’t think it’s a shock that after he was traded, the Lions offense got much better. Instead of having a guy who is supposed to be a good blocker who catches passes, the Lions found guys who DO block and can still catch passes.
I think that after Hockenson’s knee injury from Kerby, he has developed some serious alligator arms. He for sure had them last night. There were multiple throws where Hockenson pulled his arms in very quickly or never extended them to make a play. Part of this was Darnold’s inaccuracy but I think part of it was also Hockenson not wanting to risk taking hits.
During the game, it was obvious that Anzalone was getting in Hockenson’s head. Analzone was punching the ball out, draping over him in coverage, doing all the tricks to let Hockenson know he was there and it was working. TJ spent more time whining for calls than catching the ball. The Vikings like to work from the inside out. They throw to Hockenson or Nailor in the middle, and then when teams move the defense in to stop the inside plays, they hit Addison and Jefferson on the edges. Anzalone shutting down Hockenson basically cut out half of Darnold’s playbook. Playing tight man coverage effectively shut down the other half of Darnold’s reads. That’s why even though there were a few breakdowns, by and large Darnold couldn’t do anything. He never got those simple easy reads he needs and thrives on to get any confidence going.
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Great analysis by you. Thanks @StormGuyNovi
Definitely anazlone talking trash in the beginning got in to his head too
I will put it succinctly for you.
Dan and Brad thought he was a bitch.
Laporta is out there taking on 2-3 tacklers and refusing to go down.
Hock is making business decisions out there.
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when he was a Lion, I remember him falling down several times after making the catch with nobody around him
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Laporta is what I believe the Lions brass thought Hock could be but never was.
The whole sequence of events did seem strange though from reading Hock to drafting another Iowa TE high in the next draft. It was the same with Swift / Gibbs.
Instead of paying Hock and Swift they decided to draft younger players who fit the team culture better.
There is no question LaPorta and Gibbs are Campbell players.
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Probably the chocolate!! 
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He still does this. My son likes to joke that his “secure catch” button is permanently stuck. His YAC numbers are often single digits. As soon as he gets the ball, he hits the dirt. Luke Musgrave on the Packers is also notorious for this.
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Hock was always “un-clutch”
He was never a dawg
I was so happy to see him go. Wish him nothing but the best but he was never the guy who I wanted him to be.
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This.
No grit.
A very vanilla guy.
No chocolate.
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great post, couldn’t have put it any better.
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Thors Hammer happened to him.
Alex covered him like a blanket.
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I thought he will evolve,nice guy , but no game
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When we first drafted him, I was happy.
Looking at his film, you could see that he could catch, and I remember one college highlight showing a pancake block, so without a whole lot of scrutiny, I thought we had a tough SOB. Finally a TE unlike Ebron or Pettigrew who could truly block AND catch.
Then he thought so highly of himself he asked for Charlie Sanders’ 88 even though it was retired, and an exception was made. Hock kept calling himself a two way TE who should be on the field for every play because he could run block AND catch.
Then in his first game I think he had 3 TD’s, and we’re all like holy sheet, we got a gem!!
But then… well you know what happened. He couldn’t block to save his life. See @StormGuyNovi 's post for the rest…
Booooom!!!
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The Vikings are paying him 17M per year. Biggest game of the year he had 2 catches for 9 yards. I like LaPorta
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Don’t think it was a coincidence that almost all the picks Goff threw that year they traded him were to Hock. He wasn’t running crisp routes or fighting for the ball
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Well, that’s false. His numbers immediately went up when when he went from gap to zone blocking.
It’s true that Hockenson has not graded well overall as a blocker, but that’s largely because of an extreme split in zone blocking grades (wide zone/mid zone/inside zone) vs gap plays (duo, power, counter, trap, etc.):
Year| Zone Blocking Grade | Rank | Man Blocking Grade | Rank
—|—|—|—|— 2022 | 62.7 | 26th / 76 | 41.5 | 64th / 75 2021 | 66.5 | 30th / 88 | 38.9 | 85th / 88 2020 | 63.4 | 30th / 82 | 68.8 | 14th / 82 2019 | 78.4 | 3rd / 77 | 37.9 | 76th / 77
When you watch his tape, he’ll often be asked to drive block defensive ends as an in-line blocker, and he really doesn’t have the size or strength to win those one-on-ones, so it’s not much of a surprise he grades out very poorly on gap runs. But on zone runs he has consistently posted an above average grade every year, and the tape backs that up – he’s great on cut blocks on the backside of zone runs, he has good athleticism to establish leverage out of his stance on reach and scoop blocks, he has good balance and footwork to sustain blocks. He won’t generate a lot of push but he can defintiely use his athleticism and size to get in the way, and on zone blocks that’s really all you need.
That’s all IOWA plays…" History. The concept of zone blocking in both the run and pass game was created by Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz ." Scheme was what made Van Noy useless here and a star when he left.
Gonna repeat from another thread.
Floppenson
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This is true, why they weren’t on the same page after doing well together previously never made sense but it was on Hock.
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