The NFL’s trade deadline comes this Tuesday, the day after Halloween. Right now, there isn’t much trade speculation being scared up around the Detroit Lions on right end T.J. Hockenson.
The one-time Pro Bowler is often mentioned as a player the last-place Lions could trade away. Hockenson has one season left on his contract, a fifth-year option worth over $9 million in 2023. Hockenson has been spectacular at times, nondescript at others, which leads to trade talk for a player expected to try and cash in big on the free agent market after the 2023 campaign.
As Dave Birkett of the Free Press noted,
The Lions had not fielded any calls on Hockenson’s availability as of Friday, though interest in the tight end (and others) did not heat up until deadline day last year.
The trade talks, or lack thereof, don’t seem to faze Hockenson one bit. The 25-year-old told Birkett,
“Listen, I’m not stupid, I know what I can bring to another team and I know here that they could, if they want something, if they want to do things for the future then I’m not stupid in that sense,” Hockenson said. “It is a business and whatever they have to do upstairs they’re going to do. And that doesn’t — there’s no hard feelings about it. There’s no, ‘Hey, I don’t like him personally’ or anything about that. That’s just how it is. So I’m not dumb or naïve in that fact.”
Hockenson also said he doesn’t believe the Lions are actively efforting to trade him, but that he’s willing to accept whatever happens as long as he’s given a chance to contribute.
For the season, Hockenson has 23 receptions on 39 targets, netting 315 yards and three touchdowns. Over half those yards came in an epic outing against the Seahawks.