New York Jets running back Breece Hall has garnered some serious respect.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has been polling league execs, coaches, and scouts each year for the last five years. With each year, Fowler has composed a top-10 ranking at nearly every position in the NFL from the results of the votes and conversations.
On Monday, July 8 he released his running back rankings and Hall cracked the list at No. 2 overall. Last year he didn’t make the ranking and was left on the honorable mention list.
“Hall is considered the game’s best running back under the age of 25, with big upside on Year 3 projections,” Fowler said. “He looked brilliant as a rookie before tearing his ACL, then looked great again late in 2023 with 357 yards and three touchdowns over weeks 16-18 despite a nonexistent passing game around him.”
Hall Placed Impressively, Has Room for Growth
Fowler clarified in his opening monologue that this ranking isn’t a multiyear projection or a career achievement award but rather a list to determine the best players in the game right now.
Hall was No. 2 on the list only behind San Francisco 49ers superstar Christian McCaffrey. No shame in that consolation prize.
Fowler revealed that McCaffrey earned more than 80% of the first-place votes in this exercise. That is nearly more than any other player at any other position which speaks to the gap between McCaffrey and the next-best running back in the league.
Hall (23) is five years younger than McCaffrey (28). He appears to be the next in line to take the crown as the top RB in the NFL sooner rather than later.
To be legitimately in that conversation, Hall has to make a seismic jump in the rushing yardage department. Hall hasn’t had a 1,000-yard season in either of his first two campaigns in the league.
He was No. 13 in the NFL with 994 rushing yards. No. 1 was, you guessed it, McCaffrey. Similar to the voting results the next closest guy to run CMC in rushing yards last season was well behind him (292).
Hall Still Has More Doubters to Prove Wrong
While the former Iowa State product has clearly earned some respect across the league, not everyone is a believer.
At least one member of the 80 voters, if not more, didn’t even have Hall on their ballots. Fowler reveals the top-10 at each position. For each player that made it inside the top-10 list you as a reader get more information on the voting process. How high they placed on the ballots and how low they placed.
The highest ranking Hall got was second best to McCaffrey which is where he ended up. However, some didn’t rank him inside the top 10 at the running back position.
Hall had an injury-riddled rookie season and last year he appeared in all 17 games but had a few hiccups.
For example, from Week 6 through Week 15 Hall didn’t have a single game with over 51 yards rushing.
One person could poke holes at Hall’s game based on that output. However there are plenty of advanced analytics that explain that away being a result of terrible quarterback play, loaded boxes, and teams making sure that Hall won’t beat them.
“Hall averaged 4.3 yards per carry against a heavy box (eight or more defenders), which ranked fifth in the NFL,” Fowler revealed.
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