Should the Detroit Lions pony up to pay T.J. Hockenson?

T.J. Hockenson is a key piece of the Detroit Lions offense, but should the team automatically pay him what the market bears in a looming contract extension?

Despite missing the final five games of the 2021 season due to a thumb injury that required surgery, tight end T.J. Hockenson was third on the Detroit Lions in receptions (61), second in receiving yards (583) and tied for second in receiving touchdowns (four).

Hockenson is clearly a key piece of the Lions’ offense. Whether he should have been taken with eighth overall pick in the 2019 draft is another conversation, but he has mostly held up his end of the bargain with more than 60 catches in back-to-back seasons now.

Hockenson is eligible for a contract extension this offseason, and it’s a no-brainer the Lions will pick up his fifth-year option for 2023 well before the May deadline. That option is projected to be worth $9.3 million for Hockenson.

Should the Lions pony up to keep T.J. Hockenson long-term?

The answer to the above question seems to be, if only reflexively, a resounding yes. But it’s a little, if only a little, more complicated than that.

Hockenson has missed time to injury in two of his three NFL seasons–four missed games as a rookie in 2019 and the aforementioned five this season. He is in line to be ready for offseason work in plenty of time, including his participation in “Tight End U” in Nashville with college teammate George Kittle and others.

As noted by our friends over at Detroit Jock City, Hockenson posted by far the worst Pro Football Focus run blocking grade of his career this year (45.1; after 60.8 as a rookie and 70.9 in 2020). He fell way behind Kittle in that area.

Though his yards per catch averaged dropped a little over a yard this season, Hockenson did up his catch rate to a clear career-best 72.6 percent.

Spotrac has tabbed Hockenson’s market value at $12.4 million per year, and after adjusting for comps Hunter Henry, Dallas Goedert, Mark Andrews and Austin Hooper, they landed on a five-year, $64.3 million deal ( around $12.8 million per year). The $12.4 and $12.8 million marks would make him the sixth-highest paid tight end in the league for 2022 based on average annual value.

So it really comes down to if the Lions want to pay Hockenson, who is somewhere in that range if we’re ranking the position based on skill, like a top-10 tight end in the league. It’s one of the big questions for them entering this offseason, with some time to answer it even as the clock will tick louder and louder the more time passes without a multi-year deal done.