Iowa's T.J. Hockenson '95 percent sure' about NFL decision, will announce soon

Chad Leistikow
Hawk Central

TAMPA, Fla. — T.J. Hockenson is an Outback Bowl winner. What’s he going to do?

He’s going to DisneyWorld.

About the NFL? Well, there's nothing definitive yet from Iowa’s Mackey Award-winning tight end.

But he’s pretty set on deciding whether he'll enter his name into the 2019 NFL Draft or return to school for his redshirt junior season.

He said he’s “about 95 percent sure” what he’s going to do after the Hawkeyes’ 27-22 win against No. 18 Mississippi State at Raymond James Stadium.

T.J. Hockenson (38) pulled in three catches for 43 yards in the Outback Bowl, all in the fourth quarter.

“It’ll come out in the next few days,” Hockenson said after catching three passes for 43 yards. “I’m going to go hang out with my parents in Orlando and just clear my mind a little bit, hang out in Disney.

"I’ll eventually tell you guys.”

Read into that what you will. But Hockenson has a tough decision to make, considering he loves playing at Iowa and has two more years of eligibility. But if he is expected to be a first- or second-round pick, as many have projected, he’d have a hard time passing up such an opportunity.

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Hockenson said he put his phone down as much as he could over the past month so he could focus on this game.

“I owe everything to this university. I owe everything to this team. For me to come into this game distracted or half-speed, that’s not fair to them,” he said. “And that’s not fair to my coaches. I realize that. I paid attention to it for about a week, then I pushed it aside."

Two other Hawkeyes who also have NFL decisions to make spoke after the game, too.

Big Ten defensive back of the year Amani Hooker, a junior, will go home to Minnesota after the game and discuss it with his parents.

"There’s a lot of things that go into it," Hooker said. "It’s not just like, ‘What round?’"

Disruptive junior defensive end Anthony Nelson also hasn’t decided. Underclassmen have until Jan. 14 to put their names into the draft.

“I’m going to enjoy the victory for a little bit,” Nelson said, “and figure it out in the next couple weeks.”

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has covered sports for 24 years with The Des Moines Register, USA TODAY and Iowa City Press-Citizen. Follow @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.