Vikings TE Hockensen has surgery.
EAGAN, Minn. — Minnesota Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson had surgery on Monday to repair the torn ACL in his right knee, an injury he suffered Dec. 24 against the Detroit Lions, the Vikings confirmed.
Hockenson also tore the MCL in the same knee and decided, along with the Vikings, to delay the ACL surgery until the MCL had healed.
Monday’s procedure was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache from the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. With training camp roughly six months away, the Vikings have not yet provided a timetable for Hockenson’s return to the field.
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Vikings lose TE Hockenson to torn ACL, MCL
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The injury occurred in the third quarter of the Vikings’ 30-24 loss to the Lions at Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium. After leaping to grab a 24-yard pass, Hockenson absorbed a hit to the knee from Lions safety Kerby Joseph. (Los Angeles Rams tight end Tyler Higbee suffered a similar injury, on a nearly identical hit from Joseph, in a wild-card playoff loss to the Lions.)
After Hockenson’s injury, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said: “It was a very, very unfortunate play. We’ve done a nice job [in the NFL] of helping take out some of those head and neck area hits to the defenseless players, [but] some of those low hits can be incredibly catastrophic for guys. It was awful to see that happen.”
Hockenson was having a career year in his first full season with the Vikings. At the time of his injury, he ranked second in the NFL in catches by tight ends (95) and third in receiving yards (960). He signed a four-year contract extension in August 2023 worth at least $66 million and up to $68.5 million.
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Former Rams assistant Jimmy Lake takes Falcons DC job
ATLANTA — Less than a week after hiring their head coach, the Atlanta Falcons finalized their coordinators — with a heavy Los Angeles Rams flair.
The Falcons announced former Rams assistant head coach Jimmy Lake as their defensive coordinator Monday, joining new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, who also came over from the Rams, where he was quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.
They’ll reunite with new Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, who was hired from the Rams last week after serving as the team’s defensive coordinator since 2021.
Lake was the head coach at the University of Washington from 2020 to ’21 after being in various assistant roles for six seasons prior to that, including as defensive coordinator for two seasons in 2018-19.
Lake has prior NFL experience with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions, coaching the defensive backs. Lake and Morris worked together in Tampa Bay.
The Falcons also officially announced the retention of special teams coordinator Marquice Williams on Monday.
Sources told ESPN the team also plans on retaining running backs coach Michael Pitre and offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford from the previous staff.
Steelers’ Art Rooney II: ‘We’ve had enough’ of playoff win droughtPITTSBURGH — With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ last playoff victory having come in 2016, owner and team president Art Rooney II acknowledged Monday that there’s a growing sense of urgency to end the drought.
“We’ve had enough of this,” Rooney said. “It’s time to get some wins; it’s time to take these next steps.”
The leader for those next steps is clear, Rooney said, as he voiced his support for coach Mike Tomlin.
“The players still respond to Mike, and that’s No. 1,” Rooney said. “He still has the key characteristics that we saw when we hired him. He can keep the attention of a group of 20-year-olds for a whole season and keep them in the fight for the whole way.
“So, still feel good about Mike. Obviously if I didn’t, [we] would make a change, but if we didn’t think Mike was able to lead us to a championship, he wouldn’t be here, and that’s why he is here.”
PITTSBURGH — With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ last playoff victory having come in 2016, owner and team president Art Rooney II acknowledged Monday that there’s a growing sense of urgency to end the drought.
“We’ve had enough of this,” Rooney said. “It’s time to get some wins; it’s time to take these next steps.”
The leader for those next steps is clear, Rooney said, as he voiced his support for coach Mike Tomlin.
“The players still respond to Mike, and that’s No. 1,” Rooney said. “He still has the key characteristics that we saw when we hired him. He can keep the attention of a group of 20-year-olds for a whole season and keep them in the fight for the whole way.
“So, still feel good about Mike. Obviously if I didn’t, [we] would make a change, but if we didn’t think Mike was able to lead us to a championship, he wouldn’t be here, and that’s why he is here.”
In his end-of-season news conference, Tomlin said he expected to work out an extension in the offseason. Rooney didn’t give an update on the timeline for getting that done.
And although Rooney said he didn’t necessarily see a change in Tomlin’s resolve entering this offseason, he acknowledged that everyone around the organization is feeling antsy about elevating the team beyond simply making the playoffs.
“Certainly, there’s a resolve there and a determination there,” Rooney said of Tomlin. “And I think I said before, I think all of us that have been around for a little while are anxious to take this next step — and getting a little impatient — and we need to see the kind of improvement we all want to see. Mike believes that as firmly as anybody else in the building.”
The key to those next steps, Rooney said, is improving the quality of quarterback play. Although he voiced support for 2022 first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett, Rooney acknowledged that Pickett has to improve in the 2024 season.
“We still feel good about Kenny Pickett and his future, but he knows he needs to work hard to take the next step,” Rooney said. “And we’ve talked about that, and one of the things I think we liked about Kenny in terms of his career at Pitt was that, how hard he worked, and he took a step every year. So, we’re looking for that to happen here.”
Statistically, Pickett regressed in a second season that was riddled with injuries and saw offensive coordinator Matt Canada fired midseason. As in his rookie season, Pickett started 12 games, but his completion percentage dropped a bit, from 63% to 62%, and his QBR slid from 53.6 to 38.4. He also threw just six touchdowns to four interceptions in 2023.
Meanwhile, longtime backup Mason Rudolph gave the Steelers a taste of what an offense with steady quarterback play could look like in the final four games, including the loss to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round. With Rudolph at quarterback, the Steelers averaged 24.5 points per game, well over their season average of 17.9.
Rudolph is a free agent, but, like Tomlin, Rooney expressed a desire to bring him back into the fold this offseason.
“He did show what we’re capable of on offense, and the personnel we have here right now,” Rooney said. “So that’s encouraging. I don’t know that we’ve seen [Rudolph’s] ceiling yet. We drafted him high for a reason and felt like he had a lot of ability, and so I think we saw that. So, he’s probably going to have some options, so it’s going to be a question of whether he wants to come back and whether we can make a deal to get him back.
“But that being said, I still feel good about Kenny and his ability to develop as well.”
Figuring out the quarterback situation will be the top priority of the Steelers’ next offensive coordinator. The team is in the process of making that hire, Rooney said, anticipating that it will get done “sooner rather than later.” So far, the team has interviewed three candidates: former Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith and current Houston Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson.
“We have an idea of what we want the Steeler offense to look like,” Rooney said.
“Start with that, and we have a certain roster mix that leads to, you can’t completely change your roster overnight, so you kind of have to have a coordinator that feels like they can work with this roster and be successful with it.
“So, somebody that believes in that and comes in and can work with this roster, do what’s kind of already built here in terms of the roster and some of the skill sets that we have; I think that’s what we’re looking for.”
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has warmed up before games the same way for 12 years and had never encountered a problem before — until Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
About 90 minutes before kickoff, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes took exception to Tucker stretching close to where Mahomes was warming up. Multiple videos showed Mahomes twice tossing Tucker’s kicking tee aside and then Kelce kicking some of Tucker’s footballs off to the side and flinging Tucker’s helmet off the field.
“I just thought it was all some gamesmanship, all in good fun,” Tucker said Monday, a day after the Ravens’ 17-10 loss to the Chiefs. “But it seemed to be taken a little more seriously. I’m totally willing to let it all go.”
Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history, explained that this is how kickers around the league have always gotten ready for games. Kickers will make several attempts at both goal posts to get a feel for the wind and the playing surface.
On Sunday, Mahomes was taking his dropbacks near his own goal line, where Tucker had his helmet, kicking tee and three kicking balls. Mahomes asked Tucker if he could move his helmet.
“So I happily got up and I moved my helmet out of the way,” Tucker said. “At least, I think it was enough out of the way.”
Tucker described Kelce and Mahomes as “two of the best players that have ever played the game at their respective positions.” He acknowledged that it was an intense environment but found it “silly” that he had to address something that happened before the game.
“I really don’t see it as a big deal,” Tucker said. “I think if you just see the whole interaction and then you just see us at the coin toss — we’re all dapping each other up and then we just get on with the football game.”
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