Jaren Hall Had Quite the Turnaround
There was an entire offseason between Jaren Hall’s rookie season and his 2024 preseason debut. That didn’t matter as the BYU product looked rough at U.S. Bank Stadium against the Las Vegas Raiders. Then he got another week of practice, and things changed entirely.
Jaren Hall Had Quite the Turnaround
Following the first preseason game, it would have been realistic to suggest that Jaren Hall wasn’t cut out to play in the NFL. He looked entirely overmatched against Raiders backups, and even as a third-string quarterback, it would have been fair to question his roster viability.
Following season-ending surgery for rookie J.J. McCarthy, the Minnesota Vikings found themselves in a quarterback predicament for the second preseason game. Starter Sam Darnold was not going to play, and that meant only Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall were on the roster. Matt Corral was signed late in the week, and he seemed to be able to take away Hall’s roster spot.
Then Saturday happened.
Although Hall threw just five passes, he completed four and posted a perfect 158.3 quarterback rating. Totaling 87 yards, Hall put the ball in the end zone twice and graded out among the best Vikings players on the field Saturday. Whatever was going wrong a week prior had seemingly been swept away, and the 2023 rookie appeared to have experienced significant growth.
It’s still not worth suggesting that Hall is a bonafide NFL quarterback. We saw him in well over his head last season, and despite being thrust into action too early, it just wasn’t pretty.
That said, he could certainly take the number two job from Nick Mullens this year. The veteran in front of him is not some solid commodity by any means, and O’Connell needed to bench him on multiple occasions during 2023.
Realistically anyone but a good Sam Darnold will have the Vikings wish their season would end. That said, it doesn’t seem Hall’s development (or lack thereof) is as dire as it appeared out of the gate this exhibition season.
Ted Schwerzler is a blogger from the Twin Cities that is focused on all things Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. He’s active on Twitter and writes weekly for Twins Daily. As a former college athlete and avid sports fan, covering our pro teams with a passion has always seemed like such a natural outlet.
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