Vikings Cut Candidate is Flying Under the Radar Despite Multiple Starts in 2023
Last season, 5th-Round rookie Jaren Hall started a pair of games for the Vikings. In each instance, he failed to finish the game, once due to injury and once due to poor performance.
Fast forward a year and Mr. Hall is a Vikings cut candidate.
Moving on from the rookie would be risky. In all likelihood, Minnesota’s desire would be to place him on the practice squad. The NFL’s other 31 teams, though, likely wouldn’t let that happen. Young, intelligent, and athletic QBs don’t grow on trees, so someone would scoop him up. Would Minnesota really move on after just a single season?
Vikings Cut Candidate Jaren Hall and MIN’s Future at QB
The world made sense when Kirk Cousins had horns on his helmet.
No one was going to take his spot. He was the locked-in starter, so everyone else was jostling for placement within the hierarchy of backups. Removing the Cousins cornerstone causes the whole building to be a bit more wobbly.
What’s certain at this stage is that Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy are battling to become Minnesota’s Week 1 starter. The veteran journeyman is leading the race but the rookie has had some strong moments, some of which being broadcast across social media for the masses to see (and dream about).
Nick Mullens is looking like the clear QB3. The veteran is a good quarterback, someone who can move the ball down the field by giving his playmakers a chance. Can’t ask for too much more than that from a QB3. He’s going to step onto the field and won’t be intimidated as he flings the pigskin all over the field.
In fact, Kevin O’Connell sent compliments over to Mullens on July 30th: “And I do want to highlight Nick Mullens’ ability while getting maybe less reps than he has previously. You guys have seen him step in almost cold and go out and throw a ball over the middle for a big gain. Or get us into the right play; he’s already demonstrated his ownership of our system, as well.”
Keep in mind that these positive sentiments about Mullens echo previous praise. O’Connell, in short, is a believer in what Mr. Mullens can do as the QB3.
Is Jaren Hall an afterthought?
Missing on a 5th-Round pick is by no means a disaster, but one wonders if the Vikings will be somewhat nervous about moving on too quickly. After all, the debut draft for Kwesi Adofo-Mensah hasn’t exactly been a slam dunk, so starting to undermine the follow-up draft by moving on from the Day 3 quarterback would only further exacerbate the critiques about the GM’s drafting prowess (or, as the case may be, lack thereof).
Another factor to keep in mind is that Darnold and Mullens are entering the final year of their deals. The former signed a single-season prove-it deal whereas the latter is getting to the tail end of the two-year extension he signed last offseason. Moving on from Hall would thus mean that Minnesota is barrelling toward 2025 with just a single QB under contract: Mr. J.J. McCarthy, who will be a 22-year-old sophomore. And, potentially, someone with limited playing time in the NFL.
In contrast, a situation where McCarthy, Hall, and then a veteren pickup are the top QB trio would make quite a bit of sense. Maybe someone akin to Sean Mannion for that final QB3 slot, a coach in shoulder pads who is in the building to help with everything that takes place above the neck. Meanwhile, McCarthy and Hall keep pushing their games further as they lock down the top two spots.
Getting to that future, though, is far from a sure thing. Make no mistake: Jaren Hall is a Vikings cut candidate.
Recently, Vikings Territory discussed Hall as a potential trade candidate. Another piece on VT even considered the possibility of Minnesota carrying four QBs on the roster. When placed alongside the current piece, that’s a consideration of Jaren Hall as someone who could be cut, traded, or kept as the QB4. Clearly, the QB situation in Minnesota is one that inspires both intrigue and confusion.
Jaren Hall, 25, will carry a $984,818 cap charge into the season if he makes the team. He stands at 6’0″ and weighs 207 pounds. As a rookie, Hall completed 65% of his passes for 168 yards while tossing 0 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.
