'I feel like I'm back to my old self': Jets' Breece Hall ready to prove he's elite

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Breece Hall was in a race against the calendar last summer, rehabbing his surgically repaired knee with the goal of playing in the New York Jets‘ season opener.

Once again, Hall has attached added significance to Week 1. This time, instead of just being on the field, he wants to own it.

The Jets face the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 9, and Hall sees it as an opportunity to measure himself against Christian McCaffrey, whom he considers the best running back in the NFL. No longer concerned about his left knee — by then, he will be nearly two years removed from his ACL tear — Hall believes he’s ready to ascend to an elite level.

“McCaffrey’s the best in the league and, to me, he sets the standard,” Hall said at last month’s minicamp. “We’re going to see him Week 1, and we’re playing against some of the best linebackers, so for me it’s exciting just to see where I stand and really let everybody see my full talent now that I’m healthy.”

Hall also is looking forward to competing against his old college roommate from Iowa State, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. (More on that later). For now, the real story is Hall and how, after a strong finish to 2023, he appears on the verge of leaping into McCaffrey territory.

He doesn’t mind admitting that McCaffrey is a player he has studied closely.

“If you go on my YouTube and you look at Christian McCaffrey and my history, you’ll see I watched like 10 videos of his highlights and everything,” Hall said.

Their styles are similar in that they pride themselves on being two-dimensional backs, pass receivers as well as runners. Hall finished with 591 receiving yards last season, tops among running backs and 27 yards more than McCaffrey. As rushers, McCaffrey held a sizeable advantage, a league-leading 1,459 yards to Hall’s 994.

Hall suffered a mid-season slump due, in part, to an ever-changing offensive line. In retrospect, he acknowledged that his knee was a factor, too. It was his first serious injury, prompting him to admit, “I don’t think I had a super-high pain tolerance.” In November, he got called out by coach Robert Saleh for running tentatively.

But say this for Hall: He didn’t miss a game and pushed through the slump, closing the season with 507 yards from scrimmage in the final three games. He did that with Trevor Siemian at quarterback — their fourth stringer — and with defenses overplaying the run.

“I don’t think people realize or appreciate the road it takes to recover from an ACL,” Saleh said. “Breece really wasn’t full Breece until right around the midpoint [of the] season, and he was still producing.”

Hall rushed for 177 yards and a touchdown in a Week 5 win at Denver, the scene of his devastating knee injury in October 2022, but he was relatively quiet until his late-season surge. Athletes often say it takes more than a full year before they feel like themselves again after a major knee injury.

In Hall’s case, his entire 2023 offseason was focused on rehabbing, which can detract from other areas of conditioning. This year, he was able to get back into a regular offseason routine, adding strength to his left knee and left quadriceps. His did miss some OTA practices and the minicamp with an undisclosed “lower half” injury, but it was out of precaution, according to Hall.

“I feel like I’m back to my old self,” Hall said.

With Aaron Rodgers returning from Achilles surgery, Hall could be the focal point of the offense early in the season, giving the 40-year-old quarterback some time get his sea legs, so to speak. Hall, still only 23, is good enough to be the focal point for the entire season, but you’d be naive to think Rodgers — a four-time MVP — will defer all the time.

They’d be wise to keep Hall heavily involved, considering his big-play potential — a career average of 4.8 yards per rush.

“He ran much faster at the [scouting] combine than I thought he would on film because he’s always making lateral cuts,” said new running backs coach Tony Dews, who is coaching him for the first time. “But when you see him take off on a straight line, he can separate. And then he’s got impressive ball skills. He does a great job of catching the football in all three zones — short, the screen game and intermediate.”

For the record, Hall ran his 40-yard dash at the 2022 combine in a blistering 4.39 seconds. That speed enabled him to rush for nearly 4,000 yards and 50 touchdowns at Iowa State. His quarterback from 2019 to 2021 was Purdy, also his roommate.

No, he doesn’t expect to talk with Purdy before Sept. 9.

“Me and him are like overly competitive with each other,” Hall said. “Even in college, when we played Madden and stuff, whoever won, we wouldn’t talk to each other for the rest of the day. So that’s how it’s going to be until after the game.”

A game Hall has circled on his calendar. Same as last year, but for different reasons.