Good opportunities are hard to come by in the NFL. That’s especially true for players selected later in the draft.
So often, talented football players never get a shot to take advantage of and build a career from. Hundreds of the best athletes on the planet see their NFL careers wash away every season. In so many of these cases, a different situation might have yielded a different result.
A few weeks ago, Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback Jaren Hall was third on the depth chart. Selected near the end of the fifth round in the 2023 draft, Hall was mostly an afterthought to Vikings fans. After all, Kirk Cousins has been Minnesota’s starting quarterback since 2018 and has been as reliable as it gets, missing just two games in his Vikings tenure.
Minnesota’s 2023 season got off to a rocky start, but Cousins had seemingly righted the ship after a surprising Monday Night win over the Brock Purdy-led San Francisco 49ers. He had Minnesota leading the Packers in Green Bay, on the precipice of a win, before a storm hit.
Cousins tore his Achilles and backup Nick Mullens was still on Injured Reserve, so the Vikings put Hall under center for the rest of the game. Minnesota beat the Green Bay Packers 24-10, but the storm is still overhead. Cousins is done for the year and questions remain about the Vikings’ quarterback position for the rest of the 2023 season, especially given the trade for Arizona Cardinals backup Josh Dobbs, who has been filling in for an injured Kyler Murray.
But Hall will be the Vikings’ starting quarterback this Sunday in Atlanta.
Few fifth-round draft picks receive an opportunity quite like the one Hall has before him. And, no, this isn’t just about the chance to start for an NFL team in the thick of a playoff race – although that in itself is valuable experience. It’s the environment and situation surrounding Hall that could propel him to an NFL career he would have no chance of elsewhere.
The Vikings boast perhaps the best situation in the NFL for a young QB making his first career start. Take, for instance, the head coach. In just a year and a half as Vikings head coach, Kevin O’Connell has proven to be an effective play caller leading a modern, pass-first offense. A former backup NFL quarterback, O’Connell knows what Hall is experiencing better than most other head coaches.
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s offensive line is one of the best in the NFL. Factoring in Minnesota’s Week 8 win at Green Bay, the Vikings ranked third in Pro Football Focus’ pass-block grade and seventh in ESPN’s pass-block win rate. Spearheaded by one of the league’s best offensive tackle duos in Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill, the O-line will protect Hall better than he would almost anywhere else.
And let’s not forget about Minnesota’s plethora of skill-position weapons. Jordan Addison is on pace for one of the best rookie receiving seasons in Vikings history – and that carries more significance in Minnesota than it might with other franchises. T.J. Hockenson is an elite receiving threat at tight end, and the numbers say as much.
Then there’s that Justin Jefferson fellow, who won’t be on the field this Sunday in Atlanta. However, he could very well return the following Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.
Between a returning Jefferson, Addison, Hockenson, the argument could be made the Vikings have an elite group of pass-catchers to support Hall.
Unheralded quarterbacks get opportunities every year. Last week, Tyson Bagent, an undrafted rookie who played Division II football, led the Bears to a convincing win in his first NFL start.
Of course, he’s not the only one. Due to an injury to their starting quarterback in 2012, the Washington Commanders started a rookie mid-round pick on the road in the middle of a playoff race. He proceeded to take full advantage, with the help of a solid offensive line, creative play-calling, and a solid group of weapons to throw the ball to.
Does that sound familiar?
Coincidentally, that mid-round rookie was Cousins, who stepped in for Robert Griffin III and completed 26 of 37 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-21 win. That was Washington’s fifth straight in a stretch of seven in a row to finish the season and make the playoffs.
Cousins got more opportunities to start over the next couple of seasons and continued to thrive when Washington called his number. By 2015, the former fourth-round pick from Michigan State was their undisputed starter. And he just so happened to lead them to a division title that season.
Brock Purdy is a more recent example. A year ago, the San Francisco 49ers thrust him into the starting quarterback role for their Week 14 game against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady? Just another guy who knows a thing or two about succeeding as a late draft pick.
Purdy started San Francisco’s final five games of the regular season, winning all of them and leading the Niners to 30 points or more in four of those wins. Then Purdy won twice in the playoffs before an injury halted what could have been a Super Bowl run.
The 2023 Vikings aren’t all that different from the 2022 49ers. Both offenses are powered by an elite line and a remarkable group of skill-position players. Both teams are led by creative, offensive-minded head coaches who put their quarterbacks in positions to succeed.
Hall possesses many of the same traits Purdy displayed during his magical run last season. He’s an accurate thrower, especially on the move. He definitely is mobile enough to improvise with his feet when needed. Plus, despite a smaller frame, he has shown comfort in the pocket, able to go through his reads efficiently. Take this play from his limited action last week in Green Bay.
I’m not saying Hall will step in and repeat Purdy’s success, let alone fully replace Cousins. Hall is still a young, inexperienced quarterback making his first start in the big leagues. That in itself comes with a heightened level of unpredictably.
But Minnesota is undoubtedly one of the few NFL teams with the structure in place to allow a quarterback like Hall to succeed. When Hall takes the field this Sunday, the Vikings won’t be asking him to will a struggling team to victory like so many young quarterbacks making their first career start must.
Instead, he’ll be asked to guide a ship through stormy waters. But to his benefit, the ship is built to withstand the high seas. And if Hall can effectively guide it safely past the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the sailing will only get smoother for both Hall and the Vikings.
