In the summer of 2021, Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Greg Olsen dreamt up Tight End University, a three-day convention in Nashville for the purveyors of what might be football's most peculiar position. T.J. Hockenson was a natural fit.
He played with Kittle at Iowa, a school that's had five tight ends drafted in the NFL in the past 10 years. Both live in Nashville in the offseason, and Hockenson jumped at the idea of an annual retreat to strategize and socialize with peers who occupy the space between offensive lineman and receiver.
"In our position, there's not really secrets," he said. "We're all kind of the same personality types, I guess: just fun-loving, careless. We like helping out others. It was one of those things that was a no-brainer. It's kind of surprising it hadn't happened before."
During the film sessions at the conference, Hockenson tried to absorb as much as he could while Kelce shared his approach to reading zone defenses, using his footwork to beat defenders in man coverage and building his game to mirror Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes' on-field freelancing.
"I could go off on a tangent about all the things he does," Hockenson said of Kelce. "That's kind of who I've admired throughout my time in the league. I think I have the ability to do a lot of the things he does. It is incredible to watch him, and fun to be down in Nashville and pick his brain."
In a pop culture ecosystem that might only occasionally collide with the NFL, the Chiefs tight end is currently the subject of a white-hot spotlight because of his association with Taylor Swift. To the Vikings, the four-time All-Pro represents one of the biggest challenges in trying to defeat the reigning Super Bowl champions on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium. To Hockenson, Kelce has become a mentor, close friend and counterpart in a small group of tight ends who function as bona fide receivers.
Through the Vikings' first four games, Hockenson has 31 targets and Josh Oliver has eight, accounting for a 25.5% share of Kirk Cousins' targeted passes. That percentage is up from a 22.8% rate last year and represents a big jump from 2021, when the Vikings targeted tight ends just 16.8% of the time with Irv Smith Jr. out for the season because of a knee injury.
It's also the fourth-highest rate in the league, as Hockenson leads all NFL tight ends with 31 targets through four games while continuing the role he played last season as Cousins' No. 2 option behind Justin Jefferson after being acquired from Detroit in November. The Chiefs have the third-highest team rate at 29.6%. Even though Kelce missed the first game of the season with an injury, he's fifth in the league with 26 targets in the three games he's played. Hockenson and Kelce each have two touchdown catches.
"Every single snap, first, second and third down, you have to know where he is," coach Kevin O'Connell said of Kelce. "And there's a great chance wherever he is, the intent of the play is probably to involve him in a pretty significant capacity. Defensively, we have to know where he is, have a plan, and even when you have a plan, you defend it well — that's what makes the combination of Patrick [Mahomes] and him so dangerous. … You could do it exactly how you coach it, great defensive call from Flo [Brian Flores], and they're still going to make some plays against us."
Even Hockenson, who's been in the room at TE University to hear Kelce open up about his approach as a receiver, knows there's only so much he can do to help the Vikings' defenders this week.
"It's easier for me to say than it is for them to guard, you know?" Hockenson said. "I can kind of try to help out a little bit, maybe sit down and watch film, but with what they're doing, there's so many things they can run and where they can put Trav."
Hockenson, who got a four-year, $66 million extension before the start of the season, is the league's second-highest paid tight end. Kelce, who signed a four-year, $57 million deal with the Chiefs in 2020, is fourth on the list. At a position that rarely produces household names, though, there's no one with more attention than the 34-year-old Kelce at the moment — to the point where he said this week on his "New Heights" podcast with his brother, Eagles center Jason Kelce, that the NFL is overdoing it with the focus on his connection with Swift.
"He always gets a lot of attention," Hockenson said. "I don't think anything has changed in that sense. There's a little more off the field, but he always gets a lot of attention."
Kelce will have the Vikings' focus this week, in part because of a connection with Mahomes that seems to produce big plays extemporaneously. For Hockenson, Kelce remains the standard.
"You'll see him sit in a zone, and he'll see [Mahomes] move his feet, and he's like, 'OK, I'm going to go over here,'" Hockenson said. "He does a lot of stuff that's just really cool to watch. It's fun watching their film and seeing what they're doing."
