Inside The Vikings

Context Makes Jaren Hall's Preseason Debut Tough to Evaluate

Hall was under significant pressure most of the night while playing with third-stringers.
Will Ragatz|
Context Makes Jaren Hall's Preseason Debut Tough to Evaluate
Context Makes Jaren Hall's Preseason Debut Tough to Evaluate

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Minnesota Vikings

On the surface, Jaren Hall's statistics against the Seahawks indicate that the Vikings' rookie quarterback had a miserable preseason debut. He completed 6 of 14 passes for 37 yards, was sacked twice, and only led one drive of more than 20 yards on five attempts.

But while it obviously could've gone much better, the context makes his performance somewhat difficult to evaluate. Whereas Nick Mullens was playing with experienced backups and even some starters, Hall spent the second half playing alongside third and fourth-stringers, many of them undrafted rookies and roster longshots.

Things were rarely clean for Hall in the pocket. He was pressured on seven of 16 dropbacks (43 percent), according to PFF, and went 0 for 5 with two sacks on those plays. On the nine dropbacks where he was kept clean, Hall was 6 of 9 with a solid 70.3 PFF grade. That included his lone pass attempt that traveled more than ten yards downfield, a nice back-shoulder ball to N'Keal Harry for a gain of 19.

Most of the time, Hall had little time to survey his options before he was under pressure. The BYU product showed off his athletic ability in escaping the pocket several times, but had to settle for throwing the ball away instead of being able to create something outside of structure. Without seeing the tape, it's impossible to know what he was seeing downfield.

"It wasn't the easiest of circumstances out there for him," Kevin O'Connell said. "Thought we could've done some things to help him, but what did flash to me was his athleticism. Conflict resolution — there was plenty of it — and he was able to, at least sometimes not extend plays for big gains, but sack-saving plays, getting out, spinning out when we missed a couple protection assignments. We'll continue to just get the operation a little cleaner with those 3s and 4s in there. That's on us as coaches to do."

Hall will get plenty of reps in the Vikings' two remaining preseason games against the Titans and Cardinals at U.S. Bank Stadium this month. 

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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