Vikings Offense Picks Up a Major Boost from a Tight End (and it Wasn’t Hockenson)
To be sure, T.J. Hockenson made a positive difference. The TE1 made a much-anticipated return to the field and looked good while doing so, turning 4 targets into 3 catches for 27 yards. Not otherworldly stuff, but a solid debut coming off of the serious knee injury.
But while the Vikings offense saw a boost from Mr. Hockenson, it was Josh Oliver — the blocking bully — who more fully shined. Clearly, Minnesota thought that they could get an edge by targeting the athletic TE2 on a consistent basis, an approach that ended up leading to the decisive, knockout blow in the game.
Vikings Offense Gets a Major Boost from TE2 Josh Oliver
Even getting to Minnesota was a surprise.
The 2023 offseason featured no shortage of speculation about the players whom Minnesota could target. Basically no one, though, could foresee the Oliver add. The blocking specialist got picked up on a three-year deal that’s promising to kick over $21 million.
Not a bad payday given that he was coming off of a year where he had 14 catches for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns. Notably, all of those stats — the catches, yards, and touchdowns — were career highs.
His initial season as a Viking involved improving on those numbers by a modest amount. The catches rose to 22 as his yards climbed up to 213. The touchdowns remained the same, picking up a pair while playing in all 17 games for Minnesota.
On Sunday Night Football, Oliver had one of the most productive games of his NFL career. Across 5 targets from Sam Darnold, Josh Oliver snagged 5 receptions for 58 yards (11.6 average). Even better, he scored a touchdown that essentially finished the game. Check it out:
Throughout the night, Minnesota leaned on the play action bootleg to get the ball to Mr. Oliver. He did a nice job of finding open space before turning up field for some extra yardage.
Part of what makes the above play work is the pre-snap look. The Vikings have a lot of bodies crowded at the line of scrimmage, hinting that it will be a run. On the right side, Justin Jefferson is likely drawing a lot of the Colts’ attention. Adding to the confusion is the pre-snap motion that invovles Jordan Addison moving from left to right, further prompting Indianapolis to look the opposite way of where the play is actually going.
After the snap, Minnesota has layered routes. Justin Jefferson is moving along into the shallow area of the field, Johnny Mundt is in the intermediate area, and Mr. Oliver is the deepest man, the one who can score if the ball gets tossed in his direction.
Darnold, to his credit, reads things perfectly. The QB1 had an up-and-down game but he puts the ball on the money to give the Vikings a 20-10 edge that would swell to 21-10 once Will Reichard was able to put the ball through the uprights.
Josh Oliver, 27, isn’t likely to have games like these on a week-in, week-out basis. For the most part, Minnesota turns to him for his muscle as a blocker. Every so often, though, he reminds us that he has the capacity to be a dangerous pass catcher. On Sunday Night Football, the Vikings needed all of his production to push their record up to 6-2.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.