One year ago today the Detroit Lions made a trade that seemed a bit questionable at the time. They traded their Pro Bowl tight end T.J. Hockenson just a few years after the franchise had taken him with the eight pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. 

Here we are a year later and it's time to take a look at how everything has turned out and what this deal is looking like for both teams. Let's start with the Vikings. But first, here's a reminder of what the trade was. 

• Vikings get: T.J. Hockenson, 2023 4th round pick and and 2024 conditional 4th round pick 
• Lions get: 2023 2nd round pick and a 2024 3rd round pick

Vikings

Hockenson has played 16 games for the Vikings and in that time, he's racked up 96 receptions for 823 yards and five touchdowns. That's pretty good. He was able to make the Pro Bowl again last year with the Vikings too. 

The big thing here is that the Vikings made Hockenson the highest paid tight end in NFL history when they signed him to four year $68.5 million contract in late August. This should tie him to the Vikings for a while. 

So far he's having a decent season in Minnesota despite the team struggling. 

As for the picks they got in the deal. The Vikings would send the 2023 4th round pick (pick 119) to the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for a 2023 4th round pick (134) and a 2024 4th round pick. Then then used that 134th pick to take LSU safety Jay Ward. 

Ward has played six games for the Vikings as a member of their special teams unit. He's played 86 total snaps this season. 

As for the conditional pick, the conditions of that pick were that if the Vikings won a playoff game in 2022, the pick would go from a 4th round pick to a 5th round pick. The Vikings did not win, therefore that pick is not just straight up 4th round pick for them. 

Lions 

I think right off the bat you have to talk about what the Lions don't have to do. They don't have to pay that contract to T.J. Hockenson. While it doesn't totally affect the Vikings this year, next year they'll spend 5% of their total cap on just T.J. Hockenson. And they'll rank sixth in the NFL in tight end spending. The Lions will be 27th in positional spending with Sam LaPorta. A guy that's outperforming Hockenson this season.

On to the picks. Ok, follow me here. This could get a little crazy to read. 

The Lions took that 2023 2nd round pick from the Vikings and paired it with a 6th round pick (194) and sent those picks to the Chiefs for a 2nd round pick (63), a 4th round pick (122) and a 7th round pick (249). 

They then took that 63rd pick from the Chiefs and paired it with a 6th round pick (183) and sent that to the Broncos for a 3rd round pick (68) and a 5th round pick (139). 

They used the 68th pick to draft Hendon Hooker. Are you cross eyed yet? 

The Lions then took the 139th pick from the Broncos and paired it with the 122nd pick from the Chiefs and sent them both to the Cardinals in exchange for the 96th pick. They used that 96th pick to select Brodric Martin. 

We're almost done here. Brad Holmes likes to have fun with trading these draft picks. 

They took that 249th pick they got from the Chiefs and sent it to the Eagles along with D'Andre Swift and got back a 7th round pick (219) and a 2025 4th round pick. The 219th pick was used to pick Antoine Green. 

So in total, the Lions walked out of the TJ Hockenson deal with Hendon Hooker, Brodric Martin, Antoine Green and 2024 3rd round pick and a 2025 4th round pick. Not bad. 

We haven't seen much production from these draft picks because none of them have really played this season. We know that Hooker is either your premium backup going forward or a trade chip down the line. Martin is a project and Green is too. 

Who won the deal? 

We're going to have to see where things go down the line. The fact that the Lions walked out of this thing with more picks and projects and now have LaPorta and the Vikings walked out with the heftiest tight end bill in NFL history has to point to the Lions being the winners at this point. 

If we get into the future and the Lions weren't able to make anything out of these guys and Hockenson makes a few more Pro Bowls, then it could swing the other way.

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