Latest news with #T.J.Hockenson
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
3 Tight Ends To Buy In Dynasty Fantasy Football
After breaking down this series of players to buy for running backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks, it's only right to finish things off with tight ends. That said, let's break down which players you should buy in dynasty fantasy football. For this exercise, we'll be using a PPR format and basing the values off Keep Trade Cut. Starting off with the highest valued tight end on this list, T.J. Hockenson is a great value right now. Per KTC, in November 20th, 2023, Hockenson peaked as the TE1 in dynasty. Hockenson is still only 27 years old and he's attached to a great offense in the Minnesota Vikings. We've seen him put up multiple 12-plus PPG seasons and one 14.6 PPG season in 2023. In December of 2023, Hockenson suffered a torn ACL and MCL which tanked his dynasty value. With Hockenson having well over a full season to recover, he should be close to his former self in 2025. Assuming that's the case and J.J. McCarthy is a solid quarterback, you could be getting a tight end who's only 27 years old and is scoring 13-15 PPG. If Hockenson is able to get back to his former self, he'll easily be a top three dynasty tight end. David Njoku is one of the most mispriced tight ends in dynasty right now and I've seen him go even later than TE10. Njoku is 28 years old and while the Cleveland Browns offense is rough right now, he's set to be a free agent in 2026. Based on how the market reacts to new moves, if Njoku finds an appealing landing spot, his value will skyrocket. It seems like the Browns are going to let him walk as they drafted Harold Fannin Jr in the third round (67th overall pick) of the 2025 NFL Draft. Even in a bad offense, Njoku has been highly productive since 2023. Njoku had 12.6 PPG in 2023 and then was even better in 2024 with 13.5 PPG. With very little target competition, it's hard to see that production going down for 2025 and the future outlook for another team is very bright. As someone who was a massive Noah Fant fan, it puzzles me why people don't think Elijah Arroyo is the immediate TE1 for the Seattle Seahawks. Fant has been unable to produce and AJ Barner was a round four pick (121st overall). Arroyo has a clear advantage over both as he was the 50th overall pick (second round) in the NFL Draft. You can find my full breakdown on Arroyo here, which is backed by film and an in-depth breakdown. The quick breakdown, though, is that Arroyo is an elite athlete and could have been drafted even higher if he hadn't suffered injuries in college. On a team that only has Jaxon Smith-Njigba and a 31 year old Cooper Kupp, I'm expecting Arroyo to be productive right away. If that's the case and Arroyo can keep up this success, he's going to skyrocket past this TE22 ranking. Arroyo is one of my favorite buys in dynasty fantasy football.
Fox News
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Oddsmakers don't miss business of booking NFL Draft: 'I'll sleep like a baby'
When the prehistoric Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was finally struck down in May 2018, it paved the way for legalized sports betting across America as we know it today. Sure, you could bet on games and events like the NFL Draft in Nevada before the Supreme Court's ruling, but you couldn't log into your mobile betting app and wager from your couch in Illinois or New York or Pennsylvania. Sportsbooks started launching left and right and all those books fought for customers. Man, I miss the days when a sportsbook would offer you a $1,000 "risk-free" bet just for signing up. Some offers were bigger. Those were the days. Sportsbooks also found themselves competing in the realm of creativity. Shops like BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel decided it was better to have more markets to entice customers to wet their beaks. The more options, the more action. This made the 2019 NFL Draft a damn free-for-all. It was the first time you could bet on the draft outside Nevada, and I vividly remember stories of bettors driving or flying to different states to whack mispriced markets. Draft position totals were posted in early March, some places posted head-to-head matchups, and long shots were plentiful along the way. Problem is, bettors were getting sound information before the sportsbooks and blasting sharp wagers at decent limits. In those days, you could see a player go from Under 13.5 -115 to Under 13.5 -600 on a random Tuesday. The books took a bath in 2019 on things like T.J. Hockenson going exactly eighth overall and Dexter Lawrence falling outside the top 10. You just knew it couldn't last forever. Longtime Las Vegas bookmaker Chris Andrews shut down NFL Draft betting a couple of years ago as head honcho at the South Point. He offered draft markets for years but got sick and tired of seeing red on the spreadsheet. I'm sure deep down he misses booking it. "Oh my God, no," Andrews told FOX Sports over the phone. "It was never what we should've been doing as bookmakers. There's always somebody that knows what a team is going to do in the draft. There's always a leak somewhere. And if the leak gets to the right wise guys, you're dead." Fascinating, isn't it? "It's also not a contest," Andrews continued. "It's not a game between the Phillies and the Mets, and you're handicapping which team you think is better that day. The draft has nothing to do with that. It's all about who gets the information first and people that got it before we did won every year. "There was nothing I could do about it." Draft markets are few and far between in Vegas. South Point and Golden Nugget didn't offer any menus, the Westgate offered one-day, $500 limits for six hours this past Tuesday and Circa booked $300 limits for a week. It's clear the headaches just weren't worth it. "Several years ago, we went up with a prop on how many linebackers would go in the first round," Andrews recalled. "We put up [O/U] 3.5. Three linebackers ended up going, but one of the big offshore outfits paid out four by mistake. "A couple guys came to me and said they had Over 3.5 and this book paid Over so we should do the right thing, too. We went off which said it was only three linebackers. It's not our job to pay a player out because somebody else made a mistake. That's not how this racket works. "We paid all the Under 3.5 winners and that was that." The old adage says all good things come to an end. That certainly feels accurate considering we can no longer pick apart draft markets for six to eight weeks and take money from bookmakers who have no means of defense. Draft betting as we once knew it is dead. "It wasn't worth the time and energy," Andrews said. "We're not gonna win, and I'm gonna wind up pissing off my players no matter what happens." "I'll watch the draft on TV, but I'll sleep like a baby." Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and the BetMGM Network. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
Fox Sports
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Oddsmakers don't miss business of booking NFL Draft: 'I'll sleep like a baby'
When the prehistoric Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was finally struck down in May 2018, it paved the way for legalized sports betting across America as we know it today. Sure, you could bet on games and events like the NFL Draft in Nevada before the Supreme Court's ruling, but you couldn't log into your mobile betting app and wager from your couch in Illinois or New York or Pennsylvania. Sportsbooks started launching left and right and all those books fought for customers. Man, I miss the days when a sportsbook would offer you a $1,000 "risk-free" bet just for signing up. Some offers were bigger. Those were the days. Sportsbooks also found themselves competing in the realm of creativity. Shops like BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel decided it was better to have more markets to entice customers to wet their beaks. The more options, the more action. This made the 2019 NFL Draft a damn free-for-all. It was the first time you could bet on the draft outside Nevada, and I vividly remember stories of bettors driving or flying to different states to whack mispriced markets. Draft position totals were posted in early March, some places posted head-to-head matchups, and long shots were plentiful along the way. Problem is, bettors were getting sound information before the sportsbooks and blasting sharp wagers at decent limits. In those days, you could see a player go from Under 13.5 -115 to Under 13.5 -600 on a random Tuesday. The books took a bath in 2019 on things like T.J. Hockenson going exactly eighth overall and Dexter Lawrence falling outside the top 10. You just knew it couldn't last forever. Longtime Las Vegas bookmaker Chris Andrews shut down NFL Draft betting a couple of years ago as head honcho at the South Point. He offered draft markets for years but got sick and tired of seeing red on the spreadsheet. I'm sure deep down he misses booking it. "Oh my God, no," Andrews told FOX Sports over the phone. "It was never what we should've been doing as bookmakers. There's always somebody that knows what a team is going to do in the draft. There's always a leak somewhere. And if the leak gets to the right wise guys, you're dead." Fascinating, isn't it? "It's also not a contest," Andrews continued. "It's not a game between the Phillies and the Mets, and you're handicapping which team you think is better that day. The draft has nothing to do with that. It's all about who gets the information first and people that got it before we did won every year. "There was nothing I could do about it." Draft markets are few and far between in Vegas. South Point and Golden Nugget didn't offer any menus, the Westgate offered one-day, $500 limits for six hours this past Tuesday and Circa booked $300 limits for a week. It's clear the headaches just weren't worth it. "Several years ago, we went up with a prop on how many linebackers would go in the first round," Andrews recalled. "We put up [O/U] 3.5. Three linebackers ended up going, but one of the big offshore outfits paid out four by mistake. "A couple guys came to me and said they had Over 3.5 and this book paid Over so we should do the right thing, too. We went off which said it was only three linebackers. It's not our job to pay a player out because somebody else made a mistake. That's not how this racket works. "We paid all the Under 3.5 winners and that was that." The old adage says all good things come to an end. That certainly feels accurate considering we can no longer pick apart draft markets for six to eight weeks and take money from bookmakers who have no means of defense. Draft betting as we once knew it is dead. "It wasn't worth the time and energy," Andrews said. "We're not gonna win, and I'm gonna wind up pissing off my players no matter what happens." "I'll watch the draft on TV, but I'll sleep like a baby." Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and the BetMGM Network. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! recommended Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
NBC Sports
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
NFL golf highlights: NFLPA Golf Classic, Final Day
Check out the best shots and moments from the first day of action at the NFLPA Classic, where stars like Sauce Gardner and T.J. Hockenson showed off their golf games.
