T.J. Hockenson Ahead of schedule in recovery

Published: 2024-08-02 13:56:27

Speaking Friday, coach Kevin O'Connell said Hockenson (knee, PUP) is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a torn ACL, Joe Nelson of Sports Illustrated reports.

"Every time I see him working on the side field it becomes awful tempting to ... demand answers on when we'll be able to stat implementing him maybe off the PUP list and get him a little bit of work," O'Connell said. "Whether it's just simply individual, some routes on air, start getting him some timing with our quarterbacks. ... Where he's at, albeit very well ahead of maybe where some of the medical folks thought he would be, there is an injury there that a timeline exists and we're going to try to stay true to that while also giving him opportunities to push to maybe shrink that timeline a little bit." Hockenson is just over seven months removed from tearing his ACL on Christmas Eve last year. While O'Connell is excited about his tight end's progress, smart money would still be on Hockenson starting the season on reserve/PUP, knocking him out for at least the first four games of 2024. Making it back in time for Week 1 would be unprecedented territory for an ACL recovery. Josh Oliver is expected to handle TE1 duties for Minnesota for however long Hockenson is sidelined.

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