Draft picks Detroit Lions get and will give up in T.J. Hockenson trade now set

The Minnesota Vikings lost in the Wild Card Round on Sunday, so the draft pick pieces of the T.J. Hockenson trade with the Detroit Lions are now set in place.

The Minnesota Vikings’ good fortune ran out on Sunday with a 31-24 Wild Card round loss to the New York Giants. However fittingly, given the draft pick attachments of the outcome, former Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson was on the receiving end of Kirk Cousins’ on-brand decision to throw well short of the sticks on the final 4th-and-8 play.

Minnesota’s loss landed them with the 24th pick in the first round, and thus the 24th pick in subsequent rounds. Remember they sent their 2023 second-round pick to the Lions as part of the Hockenson deal. With the Miami Dolphins’ first-round pick being forfeited due to tampering, that means the Lions will get pick No. 55 to go with their own second-round pick at No. 49.

A pick the Lions sent to the Vikings with T.J. Hockenson also impacted by Vikings’ loss

The Lions sent a 2023 fourth-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick to the Vikings in the Hockenson trade. The conditional pick becomes a fifth-round pick if the Vikings win a playoff game, which of course they did not do this year.

It was never specified if the condition applies to next season too, since Hockenson is under contract via his fifth-year option, he will certainly be a Viking and the pick isn’t until the 2024 draft.

The inherent and broad assumption is the condition on the pick applied to this year only, so the Lions will surrender a fourth-round pick in 2024.

The difference between a fourth and fifth-round pick is not great most of the time. And even the difference in position of the second-round pick the Lions are getting had the Vikings won a playoff game or two isn’t too dramatic.

But in a big picture sense, the Lions now own four picks in the top-60 of April’s draft. That’s a great place to be, as more young talent will be added a roster that nearly made the playoffs this year.