Along with having to worry about Justin Jefferson and the Minnesota Vikings trio of playmaking wide receivers, the Green Bay Packers will now have to account for quarterback Jaren Hall’s mobility.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell announced that Hall would get the start for Sunday Night’s playoff-like matchup.
Hall was drafted in the fifth round of this past draft by Minnesota out of BYU. He’s seen limited action as a rookie, playing 22 total snaps between Weeks 8 and 9, where he completed 8-of-10 passes for 101 yards, plus two rushes for 11 yards.
These 22 regular seasons snaps at 109 from the preseason are all the Packers have to go off of as they prepare for Hall. But, at the end of the day, the Vikings game plan is the Vikings game plan, and that’s what Green Bay is expecting to see.
“It’s pretty much the same,” said Quay Walker of the Vikings game plan now compared to Week 8 when the teams last met. “I think they’re going to stick to the similar plays that they call. Nothing is going to change for them. They got 18 back, so that’ll be a difference but other than that, I think everything will be the same.”
However, while schematically things may look fairly similar, if the pocket collapses or pressure is unable to get home, Hall has the ability to ad-lib and take off. In his final two seasons as BYU, Hall was a ball carrier 108 times, totaled nearly 600 rushing yards, and averaged 5.5 yards per carry with six touchdowns. During the pre-draft process, Hall ran a 4.64-second 40-time.
Recently, we saw New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito find quite a bit of success with the ball in his hands against this Green Bay defense. Whether it was a designed run off of read-options, or massive running lanes created by undisciplined pass rushers, DeVito rushed for 71 yards. In Week 1, Justin Fields rush for 59 yards, and in Week 11, Justin Herbert rushed for 73.
“Pulled up some of his tape from earlier in the season and the preseason once we kind of got the idea that he was going to be the guy,” said Matt LaFleur on Thursday. “He’s obviously a very talented thrower and he’s got a lot of mobility. That’s something that we struggled with quite a bit. Mobile quarterbacks being able to break contain and pick up yardage with their legs. I know that we are going to have our hands full just defending him.”
Limiting Hall’s opportunities as a runner begins with keeping him in the pocket, and when the opportunity to bring him down is there, the Packers have to capitalize. Against DeVito, specifically, there were too many “fly-bys,” as LaFleur put it postgame, with the Green Bay pass rushers running past DeVito, creating massive running lanes for him to escape through.
”Just level rush” said Walker when asked about defending a mobile quarterback. “Being real sticky on the back end and not only that just level rush, not getting too high on them when rushing. Just having a balanced rush, I would say. Keeping him in the pocket. That’ll help because he’s mobile and everything.”
Ideally, if and when Hall breaks contain, defenders are able to swarm to him to limit the damage on the ground, but that’s also where he can really stress the Green Bay defense. Scramble drills will ensue and the Packers’ defensive backs will be forced to defend Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison off-script. Failing to do so could lead to a big play in the passing game.
However, even if Green Bay manages to be somewhat sticky, there could be a lot of open field in front of Hall, as players stick to their coverage responsibilities.
Although part of the adjustments that the Packers made against Carolina was playing a season-high in man coverage snaps, this could be a game where we see Green Bay go back to their zone-heavy tendencies. Playing man against a mobile quarterback will result in the defensive backs having their back turned with their eyes not on the ball carrier. But in zone, they can keep their eyes forward and on where the quarterback is.
“When you’re playing against a guy that’s a really good runner, it’s always better to have what we refer to as ‘zone eyes’ across the board,” said Joe Barry on Thursday, “instead of just man eyes, especially when a guy breaks the pocket. In zone coverage, you’re reading the quarterback, you’re seeing the quarterback, you’re breaking on the quarterback, so in case he does take off you have that. But I still think you’ve got to be able to mix coverage principals and play multiple different things.”
Green Bay’s ability to get after the quarterback this season has been up and down at times, but overall, they enter Week 17 ranked seventh in pressure rate, although 22nd in sacks. On the other side of the ball, the Minnesota offensive line ranks third in ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric.
Regardless of who has been under center for the Vikings this season, Minnesota has wanted to throw the ball—and understandably so. Despite the uncertainty at quarterback over the second half of the season, the Vikings still rank sixth in average yards per pass attempt. LaFleur called Jefferson the best receiver in football, while Jordan Addison and KJ Osborn have combined for nearly 1,400 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.
That on its own is enough to give this struggling Packers’ defense fits. But now they’ll also have to be aware of Hall’s mobility, an element at the quarterback position that has already burned Green Bay on a few occasions this season.
“I think in today’s football that’s something you have to be conscious of,” added Barry about defending a mobile quarterback. “That’s been the standard in today’s football. These young athletic quarterbacks that are coming into the league, that’s something you’ve got to be worried about all the time. This kid definitely falls into that category, that you do have to be conscious of.
“When you do have a quarterback that can run, I’m talking about both, when it’s a designed called run but also when things break down, and you have the perfect coverage, for example, but then a guy can take off and create and run and make plays on his own, that’s a weapon that offenses have. Definitely something we have to conscious of with this guy.”
