Many fans were excited for Minnesota Vikings’ rookie QB Jaren Hall‘s start against the Green Bay Packers. But that excitement quickly turned to dismay as the Packers blew them out, 33-10, on New Year’s Eve. The lights seemed too bright for Hall, who completed only five of 10 passes for 67 yards. Green Bay picked him off, and Hall fumbled and took three sacks. The Vikings benched him for Nick Mullens at halftime.
The NFL is a harsh league, and Hall may not even get another chance to prove his skills. However, Hall’s career is not over yet. The Vikings will take this game and use it to identify areas where he needs to improve. As can be seen from the tape, there are a number of skills he will need to work on to make it as an NFL QB.
Decision-making
It’s hard to come to a comprehensive evaluation of Hall’s decision-making from only 14 dropbacks, but the tape showed areas for improvement. Hall’s first attempt of the game came on third-and-two when he threw a contested pass to Johnny Mundt on a mesh concept.
Most mesh plays are a pure cross-field progression that start with the vertical route. The defense usually covers that, as is the case with Jordan Addison in the play below. So the crux of the play becomes LB’s reaction across the middle of the field. You have three routes attacking the middle: Mundt and K.J. Osborn‘s drag routes and Justin Jefferson‘s curl. On this play, Hall goes across the board and tries to find the open player. Against man coverage, the receivers running drag routes will continue to run, but they will sit against zone. The play below is man, so Osborn and Mundt go on their path.
Interestingly, Hall opens by looking to the right in this play, which is opposite Addison’s route. I’m not sure why because there is no vertical threat to that side; Ty Chandler is running a swing route. In doing so, Hall gets stuck on his first read. His eyes stay on Mundt, and he throws to him even though the middle linebacker has covered him well. If Hall had progressed through the read, he would have seen Osborn wide open on the other side. As a side note, there was pressure from behind on this play, and Hall deserves credit for moving away from it.
In the situation above, Hall should be trying to work the LB to force him to make the wrong choice. Looking at Mundt’s route is smart if Hall comes off of it to throw to Osborn. It’s also noteworthy that KJ is the low crosser, which is typically the one you want to throw to because the high crosser is hoping to set a pick against man coverage.
In contrast, look at the play Josh Dobbs executes against the Chicago Bears below. He looks off the LB, who moves to the right, and throws to Powell who is running away from the play as the low crosser against man:
precision passing
Hall had some pretty significant accuracy issues in this game, and that must get better if he wants to make it at the NFL level.
The most egregious miss came on third-and-long when Hall tried to hit Addison over the middle of the field. On this play, I believe Hall was trying to throw the ball as hard as possible to hit a tight window on third down. On the TV replay, the ball seemed to slip out of Hall’s hands. I believe that Hall was trying to throw this too hard, causing the ball to slip. Like in golf, you don’t need to throw as hard as possible, you need a consistent stroke that delivers the ball on time.
Hall’s second miss is a throw that still ended in a completion, and it may not be as easy as it seems. Hall is making a short throw to Josh Oliver in on a rollout. Rollouts are difficult throws by nature because the QB doesn’t have his base underneath him, but this is a short throw. On it, Hall should lead Oliver toward the sideline so he can turn upfield. Instead, he throws it behind him, and Oliver has to adjust. Oliver still makes the catch, and he breaks Eric Wilson‘s tackle.
He takes this for a first down, but this throw isn’t good:
The next two plays are situations that take reps for the QB to be on the same page as his receivers.
The first is a one-on-one deep shot to Justin Jefferson, an opportunity I’m glad the Vikings took. However, the CB plays it well and is there to break up the pass. Hall tries to go back shoulder with the throw, which is fine given the CB playing off coverage and falling off at the snap. You could argue that Hall should lead Jefferson for a diving catch, but I think going back shoulder is a valid option.
To me, the problem with this throw is two-fold. The throw needs to be further behind and closer to the sideline. Jefferson does a good job of leaving space on the sideline for Hall to throw this ball because he goes outside the DB, but Hall doesn’t use it. I’d also like to see Hall have Jefferson come back to the ball more, which can force the CB to pass Jefferson or help cause a defensive pass interference:
The final placement issue comes on Hall’s interception. I’m not sure this one is on Hall, but it illustrates the need for practice time with the players because he and Mundt are not on the same page. It happened on mesh again, but the Packers play zone this time. That means Mundt should sit down, and Hall throws the ball to the hole I would expect Mundt to sit down in. But he overruns it. Mundt gets his hands on the pass, but he tips it in the air.
Hall may be right on this play, but he also needs to be able to adjust and throw the ball to where his receiver is, not where his receiver should be, in a situation like this:
Pocket management/timing
Hall also missed out on a couple of plays because of pocket management and timing issues. To be clear, Minnesota’s offensive line didn’t make this game easy on Hall. He was under duress on most of his dropbacks. However, that is the life of an NFL QB. It’s not usually easy, and you need to be able to work quickly and in condensed areas.
In the play below, the Vikings are running a deep play-action concept, with Addison running an out route underneath Jefferson’s clear-out route. Addison stumbles out of his break but comes open on the play. Hall is slightly hesitant with the throw, and Kenny Clark beats Garrett Bradbury. With Clark in his face, Hall pulls the ball down and takes a sack:
The thing is, Hall had a window to throw the ball. If he had been lined up to throw when he hitched, he would have released a throw while getting hit, and it should have been a big gain. I’ve included Hall’s process before the play twice in the video below. The first one is full speed, and the second is paused at the point where Hall should be in position to throw the ball. Instead, he tries to reset his feet again to throw and needs to pull the ball down.
Starting-caliber NFL QBs can deliver this ball with an opponent bearing down on them. Below is an example from Kirk Cousins earlier this year. On the play, Cousins hits the top of his drop, sets to throw, and delivers a pass to Addison across the middle of the field. He has a DT come free on a rush in his face, but he’s releasing the ball when the DT contacts him and still gets it there:
Hall had another pocket precision issue on the play where Preston Smith strip-sacked him. To be clear, Smith beats LT Christian Darrisaw soundly, and Darrisaw is the primary reason for the sack in the play below. But with a five-step drop out of shotgun, Hall could have helped Darrisaw out.
The QB is supposed to drop back to about eight yards on most dropbacks. That can be nine on a pretty regular basis and sometimes 10 or 11 yards with certain play actions. Most tackles are told to push the opposing edge rusher past 10 yards of depth.
On the play below, Bradbury snaps the ball at the 46-yard line. Hall drops back to the 36, so 10 yards of depth. Hall loads up to throw a post to Jefferson, which looks open. However, Smith has beaten Darrisaw so soundly that he hits Hall’s throwing arm and knocks the ball out during his motion.
It will be necessary for Hall to tighten his drops in situations like this. Smith beat Darrisaw pretty cleanly, so a tighter drop may not have fixed this particular play, but it will help in future situations. The play below is an example of a tighter drop from Cousins on another deep-developing, five-step drop from shotgun. On the play, the ball is snapped from the 33, and Kirk drops back to the 24. That’s nine yards of depth instead of Hall’s 10. That extra yard can make a meaningful difference:
positive takeaways
Hall had a couple of plays that showed nice skill. On the play below, Hall does a nice job of hitching up into space in the pocket and delivering a throw to Jefferson on a comeback. Hall has pressure around him, but he stays calm and makes an accurate enough throw to be caught. In this situation, you want the ball to be low because the receiver comes back to it:
Hall also showed good timing on an intermediate dig route to Addison off of play action. You can see that he still has a slight reset after his hitch, but it isn’t an issue here with a clean pocket. From the wide angle, you can see Hall begin his motion before Addison has cleared the LB, which shows a nice anticipation throw. Not all young QBs can throw with anticipation, but Hall did in this scenario:
Taking what’s there and recognizing the game situation is also an important part of playing the QB position. The one sack Hall took above created an additional problem because it took the Vikings out of FG range. The Vikings run an aggressive third-down concept, with three receivers running routes past the sticks. Rather than getting sucked into a play that wasn’t there, Hall recognized the situation and checked the ball down to Mundt, enabling an FG attempt for the Vikings to put points on the board:
conclusion
There’s no way to skirt around it, Jaren Hall had a rough outing on New Year’s Eve against the Packers. In 2024, he will have to take coaching and practice to improve his level of play if he wants to earn playing time in the future. It starts with decision-making, where Hall needs to show he can read out concepts like mesh. He needs to get on the same page with his receivers on where to throw the ball and ensure he can deliver consistent, accurate passes. Finally, he will need to work the pocket better, choosing the correct drop depth for the play design, and using good footwork to help him play within the offense’s timing.
Good coaching isn’t all about tearing a player down for what he does poorly, though. Minnesota’s staff should emphasize and reinforce a couple of the positives for Hall in this game. Those plays include one where he threw a dig route with anticipation over the middle of the field, the ability to make a throw in a tight pocket, and showing the situation awareness to check down to get the team back in field goal range after taking a sack knocking them out of it.
