The Minnesota Vikings showed some interesting things in their 24-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday. One of them is quarterback Jaren Hall who got his first professional football snaps.
The Vikings fifth-round pick out of BYU, Hall is a talented signal caller that played in a very similar offense to what Kevin O’Connell runs in Minnesota. That should immediately make a difference in helping him grow and develop.
How did he do in his first professional football game? We took a look at all 17 dropbacks and graded them on their individual merits.
1st dropback
This is a staple play call in this offense. A play-action bootleg with three options: one short, one medium and one deep. This was meant to get Hall in a quick rhythm. He hits the short route to Nick Muse easily, but he waits a little bit too long to make the throw. That’s likely due to the linebacker coming toward him, but Hall can lift it over him if he wants. That slow processing is going to bite him, but it didn’t here.
Grade: B
2nd dropback
This was a really nice handling of pressure from Hall. The Seahawks send a blitz up the middle and Hall isn’t phased by it. He stays comfortable in the pocket and delivers a slant route for an easy completion. With what the play was, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Grade: A-
3rd dropback
This play-action pass didn’t get off the ground because of a free blitzer from the outside. Hall recognizes it quickly, bails the pocket and throws the ball away. You would like to see something positive come from it, but getting the ball thrown away is great to see from a rookie.
Grade: B+
4th dropback
This play sees Hall initially have a clean pocket with an in route coming open. This is what separates rookies from starting quarterbacks: anticipation. There is a linebacker in the throwing lane, but understanding that the wide receiver is about to clear allows you to make that throw. He isn’t comfortable yet in the pocket and that’s okay!
What will be important is judging this play from what we see by the end of the preseason. Is he don’t the same thing? Have we seen any noticeable improvement? That will be important.
He does escape the pocket and throw the ball away, something he did often on Thursday night.
Grade: C-
5th dropback
The hope here is to hit the crossing route over the middle. It’s a similar play to what the Vikings ran on the 4th and eight call to end the playoff game against the New York Giants. Hall initially wants to step up, but he sees a defensive tackle starting to create pressure up the middle so he scrambles before throwing the ball away.
It’s not a perfect situation for Hall, but he doesn’t allow the pressure to create a negative play. Hall isn’t creating many positive plays, but preventing the negative ones is already a feather in his cap.
Grade: B-
6th dropback
Simple play-action flood here with only a split-second that Blake Proehl gets open down the field. Anticipation hits that route for 10+ yards and a first down, but Hall isn’t at that point yet. He still prevents a negative play, but it’s a missed opportunity.
Grade: C+
7th dropback
Nothing crazy here from Hall. He puts the ball where it needs to be on simple bubble screen. Nothing more, nothing less.
Grade: A
8th dropback
This was his best play of the day. Hall takes a quick three-step drop out of the shotgun and throws a beautiful fade route to N’Keal Harry over his outside shoulder. Perfect placement and tempo. His footwork was a tad choppy, but he got it to the right spot without issue.
Grade: A
9th dropback
This is where Hall’s slow processing came back to bite him. He should be anticipating the dig route from the far slot (top of the screen) and it comes open, but he is waiting to see it instead of anticipating it. That causes the sack because Hall sees it too late. It’s not too concerning considering this is just his first professional game with third-string guys and a vanilla playbook. It is something that raises a red flag moving forward.
Grade: D+
10th dropback
You could tell that sack (above) on the previous play factored in here. He has a decent pocket initially but is still processing things way too slow. Hall could have gotten the in route to Harry, but he saw it too late and the pocket had already collapsed. He is learning quickly that windows close much quicker at the next level.
Grade: D-
11th dropback
On a third and long, this is a designed screen to get some yards and minimize risk inside the 15 yard line. Hall allows the screen time to set up, but the offensive line doesn’t get out front and there isn’t a lane for Abram Smith so he wisely throws it away. Frustrating drive for Hall, but this is the right call.
Grade: B
12th dropback
This is a simple spacing concept and Hall makes the right read to Harry. The frustrating thing with this play is that Hall throws a poor ball. It’s low which is good, but throwing it behind Harry where the defender might be able to get to is is objectively frustrating. This could have been executed so much better.
Grade: C
13th dropback
This is a similar issue to the previous play. He sees the open man and hits the window even better this time, but throws Proehl a ball unnecessarily low. Yes, it should be kept low so you don’t sail it for an interception, but this a catch that shouldn’t be this difficult. The footwork from Hall was also a little rushed, and that is something we will see cleaned up in time.
Grade: C-
14th dropback
This play doesn’t officially count due to the penalty you saw thrown at the end, but it’s the best instance of Hall navigating the pocket. Ben Sims runs a simple out route and he throws a capable ball to the outside shoulder, making it hard for the defender to get to. It’s not a perfect ball and the coverage is good, but it works.
Grade: B-
15th dropback
This rep gets ruined by the interior pressure. He has Thayer Thomas about to spring open from the far slot but he already has to bail out of the pocket. Hall could easily hit Abram Smith in the flat, but he doesn’t process it quickly enough and ends up throwing it away. Good, but not great rep here from Hall.
Grade: C
16th dropback
This is a frustrating one. Hall sees the slant coming open underneath, but the defensive tackle gets his hands up to bat it down. That’s something that Hall should know to work around as best he can. Not a great rep, but also not brutal.
Grade: C-
17th and final dropback
Classic stick concept here out of an empty set. Hall’s first read is to the near side and he throws it to a covered Thayer Thomas and it gets batted away. He didn’t have to force the ball and could have maneuvered to his right to make a play on fourth down. That type of awareness is something that he just doesn’t have yet.
Grade: D+
What we learned
The main takeaway here is Hall has a long way to go. He has the ability to do a lot of really good things, but the speed of the game is an issue. The bad things are also amplified by the following factors
- Playing with third teamers
- Vanilla playbook
The biggest thing for Hall will be to see how he improves off of his first performance throughout the rest of the preseason. It’s hard to come out of this thinking Hall is going to be good or bad, but rather chalk it up to his first-ever NFL game.
One thing that did stand out: Hall is comfortable throwing the football away, something that some quarterbacks never quite figure out. Sometimes, throwing it away is the best decision and that is a good sign moving forward.
Grade: C/C+
