Breece Hall said he went “back to the basics” this offseason after a disappointing 2024 season both for himself and the Jets.
Hall returns for his fourth season to a much different team.
Gone are the general manager and head coach who drafted him — with Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh now in Philadelphia and San Francisco, respectively.
In their places are Darren Mougey and Aaron Glenn, and a whole new set of evaluators Hall needs to impress.
“I’m around new GM, new coaches, a lot of new coaches. For me, I’ve got to go prove I am the guy. That’s every day,” Hall said Wednesday during the Jets minicamp. “I feel like my skill set [is] that I’m a three-down back that’s second to none. … We have a great running back room with a lot of healthy competition, but my mentality is every day I want to prove that I’m the best back on this roster, one of the best backs in the league.”
This is a big season for Hall, who has been steady but has not quite ever realized the potential he showed as a rookie before he tore his ACL.
His rushing yards dropped last year (from 998 in 2023 to 876 in 2024), and he scored five rushing touchdowns for the second straight season.
Hall is entering the final year of his rookie contract.
The running back market got a boost last year thanks to Saquon Barkley, but it is still a position that many teams do not want to reward with big contracts.
Glenn has also spoken about the team taking a committee approach at running back, with second-year players Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis having big roles.
That could take away from what Hall can do.
Despite having to potentially share the load, Hall still should have a major role in this offense.
Last season, he somehow did not have one game with 20 carries.
That seems unlikely to happen this year with new offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand coming with Glenn from the Lions, a team that was sixth in rushing yards in the NFL last season.
“He’s got a very good skill set,” Engstrand said of Hall. “But he’s a worker, like I said the last time we were in here, he’s just a worker. He’s going to go to work, he works on his craft, he’s detailed, and he is an all-around player. He’s not, I would say, not pigeonholed into one type of back. He’s not an inside runner, not an outside runner, he kind of can do a lot of all of it. And then again, the pass game is huge for us, too.”
Hall’s name came up in trade rumors around the draft.
The Jets pushed back against those rumors, saying they never even took a call about Hall.
Still, his name was floating around the Internet and on social media, and Hall saw it.
“I was seeing it just like everybody else was seeing it,” Hall said. “If people feel like you’re not doing your job, you’re going to be replaced. It didn’t happen. I’m here. A.G. called me and told me he wanted me to be here. For me, that meant a lot.”
Hall said he felt like he received a lot of the blame for last year’s 5-12 season.
“It’s always frustrating as a team and as an individual when you’re not winning games and playing as well as you expect,” Hall said. “After the season, there’s always somebody to blame or someone the blame gets put on. A lot of it just so happened to be on me. It was like, ‘OK, just get back to the drawing board, get back to working hard.’ I know what I can do. I know the potential I have, but potential only goes so far.”