The Lions made no secret of their plans to upgrade at tight end this offseason and they stuck to that plan with the eighth overall pick on Thursday night.
The team drafted former Iowa tight end T.J. Hockenson, who became the fourth player at the position to go in the top eight of a draft in the last 40 years. Going so early leads to high expectations, but Hockenson said his expectations for himself are the same as they were before the draft got underway.
“Honestly, I mean, I don’t think there’s any expectations that I don’t have myself,” Hockenson said, via the Detroit Free Press. “I’m going to go in and I’m going to do the same thing I did throughout my entire life is work hard and figure out what I need to do to help that team. Whether that’s inline blocking, whether that’s catching the ball, whether that’s sitting on the bench, no one knows. There’s support, but I’m going to work my tail off. I’m going to do everything I can to help this team.”
The Lions don’t have the best history when it comes to taking tight ends in the first round. Hockenson said he “can’t control anything about that” and the hope in Detroit is that his arrival will make people forget Eric Ebron, Brandon Pettigrew and any other bad memories.