Vikings have reportedly begun extension talks with T.J. Hockenson

With his current contract set to expire in 2024, the Minnesota Vikings and tight end T.J. Hockenson have reportedly started to negotiate an extension.

Five days after the Minnesota Vikings acquired him in a trade with the Detroit Lions, tight end T.J. Hockenson was already making an impact for his new team.

In his first game with the Vikings last season, Hockenson helped lead the team to a 20-17 win on the road over the Washington Commanders by hauling in all nine of his targets for 70 yards.

He went on to catch at least five passes in seven of his 10 games with Minnesota in 2022, including an impressive Week 16 performance in which he finished with 13 catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns.

Talks between the Minnesota Vikings and T.J. Hockenson for a well-deserved extension are reportedly “off the ground”

Currently, Hockenson’s contract with the Vikings is set to expire in 2024 after the upcoming season. But given his performance with Minnesota in 2022, the team would probably like him to stick around for much longer than just one more year.

Well, according to KSTP’s Darren Wolfson on Thursday’s episode of SKOR North’s “Mackey & Judd”, discussions between the Vikings and Hockenson’s representation are reportedly “off the ground.”

There are currently five tight ends in the NFL with an average annual salary that is higher than $14 million per year. So we should expect that $14 million amount to be a starting point for Hockenson and Minnesota in their extension talks.

So will the Vikings end up making Hockenson one of the highest-paid tight ends in the NFL this offseason, or will the former first-round pick end up hitting the free-agent market in 2024?