QB Jaren Hall

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"greediron" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"JR44" said: He seems like a Taylor Heinicke to me, someone who could come in and win some games.  When Hooker fell into the 3rd, I didn't see any reason not to move up and go get him, especially since it doesn't seem to me that we got a lot of value with our 3rd and 4th rounders.  

I was thinking maybe we have our new Sloter.

Seems about the opposite of sloter.  There was a physical specimen with little between his ears.  Made for great preseason highlights against non-NFL level competition.

Hall may be lacking the physical traits in some aspects, but seems to have the mental capacity to be a long term NFL QB.

Exactly, I'd call him the anti-Sloter actually.

I was thinking more along the line of how the board is going to react to him. Some will be banging a drum for him after Cousins throws a pick.

Hardly unique to sloter,  the backup QB is the most popular player on any team that doesn't have a franchise QB.

Nice article here on Hall from BYU TV sportscaster Spencer Linton's perspective and what the Vikings are getting:

https://www.fox9.com/sports/minnesota-vikings-draft-what-to-know-about-rookie-qb-jaren-hall

If Hall can remain healthy, we might have hit on something here. 

@"greediron" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"greediron" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"JR44" said: He seems like a Taylor Heinicke to me, someone who could come in and win some games.  When Hooker fell into the 3rd, I didn't see any reason not to move up and go get him, especially since it doesn't seem to me that we got a lot of value with our 3rd and 4th rounders.  

I was thinking maybe we have our new Sloter.

Seems about the opposite of sloter.  There was a physical specimen with little between his ears.  Made for great preseason highlights against non-NFL level competition.

Hall may be lacking the physical traits in some aspects, but seems to have the mental capacity to be a long term NFL QB.

Exactly, I'd call him the anti-Sloter actually.

I was thinking more along the line of how the board is going to react to him. Some will be banging a drum for him after Cousins throws a pick.

Hardly unique to sloter,  the backup QB is the most popular player on any team that doesn't have a franchise QB.

I will try again.  That doesn't explain the Sloter popularity... B)

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"greediron" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"greediron" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"JR44" said: He seems like a Taylor Heinicke to me, someone who could come in and win some games.  When Hooker fell into the 3rd, I didn't see any reason not to move up and go get him, especially since it doesn't seem to me that we got a lot of value with our 3rd and 4th rounders.  

I was thinking maybe we have our new Sloter.

Seems about the opposite of sloter.  There was a physical specimen with little between his ears.  Made for great preseason highlights against non-NFL level competition.

Hall may be lacking the physical traits in some aspects, but seems to have the mental capacity to be a long term NFL QB.

Exactly, I'd call him the anti-Sloter actually.

I was thinking more along the line of how the board is going to react to him. Some will be banging a drum for him after Cousins throws a pick.

Hardly unique to sloter,  the backup QB is the most popular player on any team that doesn't have a franchise QB.

I will try again.  That doesn't explain the Sloter popularity... B)

Sloter was popular because he was phenomenal in the preseason. Just ridiculous numbers. 1222 yards, 11 TDS, 1 INT. 74% completion percentage. But nobody was calling for him to replace Cousins. That I'm aware of. 

I think Todd Bouman is the name everyone's looking for. Whenever Culpepper had a bad game, the Bouman talk would heat up. 

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"greediron" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"greediron" said:

@"wiviking" said:

@"JR44" said: He seems like a Taylor Heinicke to me, someone who could come in and win some games.  When Hooker fell into the 3rd, I didn't see any reason not to move up and go get him, especially since it doesn't seem to me that we got a lot of value with our 3rd and 4th rounders.  

I was thinking maybe we have our new Sloter.

Seems about the opposite of sloter.  There was a physical specimen with little between his ears.  Made for great preseason highlights against non-NFL level competition.

Hall may be lacking the physical traits in some aspects, but seems to have the mental capacity to be a long term NFL QB.

Exactly, I'd call him the anti-Sloter actually.

I was thinking more along the line of how the board is going to react to him. Some will be banging a drum for him after Cousins throws a pick.

Hardly unique to sloter,  the backup QB is the most popular player on any team that doesn't have a franchise QB.

I will try again.  That doesn't explain the Sloter popularity... B)

Sloter was popular because he was phenomenal in the preseason. Just ridiculous numbers. 1222 yards, 11 TDS, 1 INT. 74% completion percentage. But nobody was calling for him to replace Cousins. That I'm aware of. 

I think Todd Bouman is the name everyone's looking for. Whenever Culpepper had a bad game, the Bouman talk would heat up. 

We wanted sloter to replace Mannion. 

https://vikingswire.usatoday.com/lists/2023-nfl-draft-minnesota-vikings-byu-cougars-jaren-hall/

@"StickyBun" said: https://vikingswire.usatoday.com/lists/2023-nfl-draft-minnesota-vikings-byu-cougars-jaren-hall/

Vikings have a chance with this kid. I think once the Vikings removed Levis from their draft board, it was either move up big, presumably for AR, or take Hall late. 

He may never be more than a QB2, but maybe the Vikings finally get lucky on a drafted QB. They're certainly due. 

Jaren Hall wow

Chase Roberts wower pic.twitter.com/i8cv1se6TX

— Cam Mellor (@CamMellor) September 11, 2022

So this is like a 35 yard pass just effortlessly dropped into a bucket. He barely stepped into it. I think his arm is stronger than the narrative.

Here's a 55 yard pass that seemed to not require that much effort. Calm in the pocket, stepped up and tossed a dime. Threw right from the 50 yd line and the WRer caught it 5 yards deep in the end zone.

I watched 4 games worth of all-throws/runs from Hall.   My take: he has a decent arm, can run it a bit and even juke defenders on the way.   Can make all the throws as they say.  Played exclusively from the shotgun, so he didn't face collapsing pockets as much as an under-center guy would, but his tendency when in trouble is not to try to run for yardage, but to run vertically behind the line and chuck the ball.   This leads to some bad int's.  When asked to do a called run he looks good, very good at times.

Another tendency is to throw high, also leading to some bad situations.   His deep ball accuracy is a bit inconsistent.   He was in what looked like a mostly one-read offense like a lot of college qb's but did occasionally look to a second guy, albeit too slowly imho.  He did show ability to check it down to a short man in some situations which is a decent skill to not need to develop at the pro level.   Has a bit of the gunslinger in him which is a good thing if it doesn't turn into hero-ball, which it does once in a while but this is fixable imo.   Played baseball in college and can throw well on the run or at weird arm angles ala Mahomes, another baseball player.  A good skill for the evolving NFL offenses in vogue now.

He was playing last year on a bad shoulder but could still power the ball downfield so curious to see what he looks like in camp this summer.   He's a little undersized but not as small as a Murray or Wilson.  It's hard to say how he'll develop but clearly being a 5th rounder means most teams aren't viewing him as NFL starter material.  I could see him as a decent backup/journeyman type, maybe even a starter somewhere if everything goes really well in his development.  But whether he can adjust to the pro game, clean up issues, etc. is a big question, the big question for every prospect even the guys taken top 5.

@"StickyBun" said: Here's a 55 yard pass that seemed to not require that much effort. Calm in the pocket, stepped up and tossed a dime. Threw right from the 50 yd line and the WRer caught it 5 yards deep in the end zone.

Anyone notice the CB who got badly beaten on the play =)  

@"JR44" said:

@"StickyBun" said: Here's a 55 yard pass that seemed to not require that much effort. Calm in the pocket, stepped up and tossed a dime. Threw right from the 50 yd line and the WRer caught it 5 yards deep in the end zone.

Anyone notice the CB who got badly beaten on the play =)  

@"comet52" said: I watched 4 games worth of all-throws/runs from Hall.   My take: he has a decent arm, can run it a bit and even juke defenders on the way.   Can make all the throws as they say.  Played exclusively from the shotgun, so he didn't face collapsing pockets as much as an under-center guy would, but his tendency when in trouble is not to try to run for yardage, but to run vertically behind the line and chuck the ball.   This leads to some bad int's.  When asked to do a called run he looks good, very good at times.

Another tendency is to throw high, also leading to some bad situations.   His deep ball accuracy is a bit inconsistent.   He was in what looked like a mostly one-read offense like a lot of college qb's but did occasionally look to a second guy, albeit too slowly imho.  He did show ability to check it down to a short man in some situations which is a decent skill to not need to develop at the pro level.   Has a bit of the gunslinger in him which is a good thing if it doesn't turn into hero-ball, which it does once in a while but this is fixable imo.   Played baseball in college and can throw well on the run or at weird arm angles ala Mahomes, another baseball player.  A good skill for the evolving NFL offenses in vogue now.

He was playing last year on a bad shoulder but could still power the ball downfield so curious to see what he looks like in camp this summer.   He's a little undersized but not as small as a Murray or Wilson.  It's hard to say how he'll develop but clearly being a 5th rounder means most teams aren't viewing him as NFL starter material.  I could see him as a decent backup/journeyman type, maybe even a starter somewhere if everything goes really well in his development.  But whether he can adjust to the pro game, clean up issues, etc. is a big question, the big question for every prospect even the guys taken top 5.

One interesting aspect, and you bring it up and its a knock on him is injuries. He's been injured at times, but played through it many times. And that impacted his play. When he's healthy, you can notice the difference on video. He's more of an upper 3rd round/lower 2nd round talent when he's completely healthy. But that's part of the knock on him, of course. Can't help the team on the bench. But sometimes these guys have kind of a fluky college injury history and then never get injured as pros. Hard to know. 

@"comet52" said: I watched 4 games worth of all-throws/runs from Hall.   My take: he has a decent arm, can run it a bit and even juke defenders on the way.   Can make all the throws as they say.  Played exclusively from the shotgun, so he didn't face collapsing pockets as much as an under-center guy would, but his tendency when in trouble is not to try to run for yardage, but to run vertically behind the line and chuck the ball.   This leads to some bad int's.  When asked to do a called run he looks good, very good at times.

Another tendency is to throw high, also leading to some bad situations.   His deep ball accuracy is a bit inconsistent.   He was in what looked like a mostly one-read offense like a lot of college qb's but did occasionally look to a second guy, albeit too slowly imho.  He did show ability to check it down to a short man in some situations which is a decent skill to not need to develop at the pro level.   Has a bit of the gunslinger in him which is a good thing if it doesn't turn into hero-ball, which it does once in a while but this is fixable imo.   Played baseball in college and can throw well on the run or at weird arm angles ala Mahomes, another baseball player.  A good skill for the evolving NFL offenses in vogue now.

He was playing last year on a bad shoulder but could still power the ball downfield so curious to see what he looks like in camp this summer.   He's a little undersized but not as small as a Murray or Wilson.  It's hard to say how he'll develop but clearly being a 5th rounder means most teams aren't viewing him as NFL starter material.  I could see him as a decent backup/journeyman type, maybe even a starter somewhere if everything goes really well in his development.  But whether he can adjust to the pro game, clean up issues, etc. is a big question, the big question for every prospect even the guys taken top 5.

Good stuff. I haven't yet watched him beyond a few highlights, but I like that above the shoulders he's top shelf. Good Wonderlic, scored high on the S2, reported to have impeccable character. I think he's got a chance to be a low-end starter in time. I think he replaces Mullens in '24.  

Stout, strong build. Throws a tight spiral. He'll have to learn like any other rookie. I feel encouraged that he could possibly be the #2 QB on this team. I don't have any other predictions with him, but I think the above the shoulders aspect gives him a real shot. Maybe not this year, but next. It might be that Minnesota is not only more comfortable with Mullens this year backing up Kirk, but also they want Hall to marinate this year. If he has a nice offseason and preseason game showing, Vikings might have to keep 3 QBs on the active roster so he doesn't get poached. Cart way ahead of the horse on that, of course.

The key: can he break past and beyond what his upside has been labeled as? Can he be a quick twitch decision maker? Will he stay healthy given playing time? Can he be accurate within the faster paced NFL? How will he respond to being under center and taking snaps much more often?

This is at The Athletic, but supposedly is a very good story on Hall. Not sure if anyone here subscribes?

https://theathletic.com/4522816/2023/05/16/jaren-hall-byu-vikings/

@"StickyBun" said: This is at The Athletic, but supposedly is a very good story on Hall. Not sure if anyone here subscribes?

https://theathletic.com/4522816/2023/05/16/jaren-hall-byu-vikings/

Gotta love how the Athletic teases you by giving you a good 20 seconds of reading time before pulling up the pay wall. 

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"StickyBun" said: This is at The Athletic, but supposedly is a very good story on Hall. Not sure if anyone here subscribes?

https://theathletic.com/4522816/2023/05/16/jaren-hall-byu-vikings/

Gotta love how the Athletic teases you by giving you a good 20 seconds of reading time before pulling up the pay wall. 

@"JR44" said:

@"StickyBun" said: Here's a 55 yard pass that seemed to not require that much effort. Calm in the pocket, stepped up and tossed a dime. Threw right from the 50 yd line and the WRer caught it 5 yards deep in the end zone.

Anyone notice the CB who got badly beaten on the play =)  

@"StickyBun" said: This is at The Athletic, but supposedly is a very good story on Hall. Not sure if anyone here subscribes?

https://theathletic.com/4522816/2023/05/16/jaren-hall-byu-vikings/

Here ya go, had to break it into two parts because of the post size limit here:
part 1:

Why rookie QB Jaren Hall is a perfect fit for the Minnesota Vikings

They were tired of the meetings. Meetings to discuss compliance rules. Meetings to introduce team obligations. The BYU football players had attended these sessions for hours one day at the beginning of fall camp in 2021, and yet they were not finished.
BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick had prepared his talking points for an offense-specific forum: Arrive on time, be prepared and make no excuses. He planned to move quickly through the details to keep the players’ attention. Before he entered the room, though, one of the players approached him.
“Coach!”
Roderick discerned the voice. It was Jaren Hall, then a redshirt sophomore quarterback who had been at the school for three years but never started.
“Can I just have a minute to talk to the team either before or after you?” Hall asked.
“Sure,” Roderick said. “You go first.”
Hall stepped into the room and stood before his teammates.
“All right, listen up,” Hall said. “This is how we’re going to operate.”
The quarterback mentioned the importance of timeliness. He spoke directly to the older players, explaining how much the team needed to embrace its youthful talent. Hall even cited the importance of the “Holy War,” the rivalry between BYU and Utah, declaring: “We’re going to punch them in the mouth, and we’re going to keep punching all night.” (At the time, BYU had lost nine straight games to Utah.)
“I’m looking at the players while he’s talking,” Roderick recalled recently, “and all eyes were on him. It was the best player speech I’ve ever heard in my career.”
It was not Hall’s words so much as the gravitational pull of his presence that Roderick remembers.
The coach thinks the value is in the why behind it — why Hall, who had never been BYU’s starter, had the cachet to captivate the entire room. Peel back the layers, Roderick believes, and you will further understand the qualities that intrigued the Minnesota Vikings enough to add the 25-year-old Hall to their quarterback room.
Let’s start on an airplane.
It was 3 a.m. one September morning in 2020, and Roderick unbuckled his seatbelt and headed down the aisle toward the restroom. Hours before, BYU had beaten Navy 55-3. The team was flying back west.
Roderick expected most of the players to be asleep, but the white glow of an iPad screen caught his attention. Roderick noticed that the team’s starting quarterback and future first-round pick, Zach Wilson, was awake and watching game film of his football hero: Aaron Rodgers. This was the Wilson that Roderick had become accustomed to coaching: a QB who sought any tiny tidbit of information that could help, at times to a fault.
Hall, Wilson’s backup that season, may not have downloaded Rodgers’ film and watched it at 3 a.m. He did, however, share Wilson’s willingness to improve his football understanding.
But that’s far from the only thing Wilson and Hall had in common.
The two quarterbacks’ teams played against each other in high school. Wilson attended Corner Canyon, while Hall went to Maple Mountain. Hall is actually a year older than Wilson, but Wilson joined BYU’s football team a year earlier because Hall served a two-year mission in California.
Because Wilson was familiar with the team’s offense and Hall needed time to knock off rust after serving his mission, the younger Wilson beat out Hall for the team’s starting quarterback job in 2019.
“It was a really competitive battle,” Roderick said. “As close as it could be. We decided on Zach the week of the first game.”
Hall could have resented Roderick for the decision. In this era of college football, many would have transferred. Instead, Hall supported Wilson through the ups and downs of a 7-6 season.
The next year, Hall pushed Wilson again for the starting job. Once again, Wilson got the nod during the week before the first game.
“The main reason we chose Zach was that at the time Jaren was still playing baseball,” Roderick said. “Zach was all (foot)ball all the time. And yet, in spite of that, Jaren kept the competition super close.”
Again, Hall could have complained or transferred. But even Dustin Smith, cofounder of QB Elite, who has coached Hall privately since he was in eighth grade, said that Hall never expressed disdain for Wilson. In fact, Smith said Hall never mentioned the idea of playing elsewhere.
Roderick was not the only one who took note of the way Hall handled the decision — Hall’s teammates were aware of the way he reacted, too.
“People gained confidence in him because they knew what to expect,” Roderick said.
Of course, it helped that they also knew how Hall could operate on the field.Jaren Hall would go on to lead BYU to a 10-3 record in 2021, his first season as the Cougars’ starting quarterback.