Hours ago, news broke that the Philadelphia Eagles have signed cornerback Tyler Hall. The Eagles have long struggled in this position and the 25-year-old’s signing comes as positive reinforcement for them. Since making his NFL debut in 2020, Tyler has seen 301 snaps in the slot and 85 outside – a very effective track record. One of his best seasons came last year in his second season with the Las Vegas Raiders where he notched up an impressive 20 tackles in just 11 games.
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Despite the decent statistics, Tyler Hall is not a big name that enthralls Eagles fans. Moreover, the numbers come with a small sample size as well. Luckily for us, NFL analyst Chase Senior of “Eagles Now by Chat Sports” has given us an in-depth effectiveness metric of Hall in his 3 year NFL career. One of the key takeaways from Chase Senior’s assessment was that despite Hall’s short height for a cornerback [5 feet eight inches], the former Falcons rookie doesn’t let it affect his running game.
This is reflected through his solid run defense grade of 74.7 and a coverage grade of 71.9. The combined overall grade of Hall is at a very healthy 72.7. While this number pales to 90.8 grade of Jaylon Johnson, what separates Hall from the likes of Johnson, DaRon Bland and other top CBs of the league is his balance in both defense and coverage. Chase also noted in his analysis that Hall had a pass rating of 114.6, which is solid when one considers the personnel and inconsistency of the Raiders. Tyler’s 104 coverage snaps were also noted impressive by Chase of ‘Eagles Now,’
“He had 104 coverage snaps under Patrick Graham, really good defensive coordinator by the way for the Raiders as well as Antonio Pierce. But within those 104 coverage snaps, the numbers here are pretty solid. An overall grade of 72.7, a run defense grade of 74.7, and a coverage grade of 71.9. So despite him being short, he’s not afraid to mix it up in the Run game a little bit. [He] did give up a pass rating of 114.6 for a Raiders defense that was spotty at times, but toward the end of the year, they started to play really really good football.”
While the numbers don’t reflect Tyler to be a world beater by any chance, it does show that he has a lot of potential to be one. Especially his overall PFF rating in 2022 [via NJ] of 86.9 [albeit under a smaller sample size]. Eagles have struggled massively over the years in the slot cornerback position. Hence they would desperately hope that Hall’s signing works big time for them.
Tyler Hall Has a Huge Responsibility On His Shoulders
Slot cornerback has been a position that the Eagles struggled with a lot last season. After losing starter Avonte Maddox for a long time due to an injury in Game 2, the Eagles went on to try 6 more players in the position to fill the void. Overall, they tried a whopping 7 seven players for a single position last season, namely – Bradley Roby, Kevin Byard, Eli Ricks, Maddox and James Bradberry and Reed Blankenship. All of them had a good opportunity to grab the chance, with them playing at least 90 snaps in the slot.
Unfortunately for them, none could convert the opportunity. Bradley Roby and Kevin Byard, who played the most snaps in the slot after Maddox are also not part of the squad anymore. Safe to say, Tyler Hall has a golden opportunity in his hands to make the Eagles cornerback position his own. But its also a huge responsibility. Philadelphia, meanwhile, would hope that their move pays off after the promise shown by Hall in his last two season with the Raiders.
