After four years of up-and-down play, the Jets came into the final year of running back Breece Hall‘s rookie contract unsure of whether or not they wanted to extend him to a long-term contract. When, after the season, they tried and failed to reach an extension agreement in time for free agency, New York opted for the franchise tag. According to Connor Hughes of SportsNet New York, the team is expected to restart its extension efforts after the draft. 
As a second-round rookie out of Iowa State, Hall looked electric in his limited first year. He started the season coming off the bench for secondary carries behind Michael Carter but took over a dominant share of the workload by Week 4 and was named a starter by Week 6. Unfortunately, Hall tore his ACL and meniscus early into his second career start, ending his rookie campaign.
Recovering in time to return to a starting role in Year 2, Hall had a strong bounce back season. While he had a tendency to disappear in some contests, he had a few stellar games en route to 994 yards and five touchdowns rushing and 591 yards and four touchdowns receiving. His third season with the team saw fewer disappearances for the young back but also featured fewer big performances with Hall logging just one 100-yard game all season. He also struggled with fumbles more than in prior years, losing the rock six times.
In the following offseason the Jets had no plans of extending him before his final year, but they also weren’t eager to try and trade their leading rusher, either, despite the interest he seemed to draw around the midseason trade deadline. Both Hall and his coaches made clear their desires to avoid a trade, and the front office seemed to follow suit by setting a high asking price for the fourth-year back, indicating that a long-term deal may have entered their plans. Once the team traded away two defensive cornerstones, Hall’s tune reportedly changed a bit, but he never requested a trade.
Realizing that Hall would garner a strong free agent market, based on the trade interest he received and his first 1,000-yard rushing season, the Jets set their sights on retaining the 24-year-old rusher. As the offseason came and progressed, though, the team and player found themselves far apart on contract terms, so the franchise tag came into play. The tag allowed New York to put Hall’s extension on the backburner, while free agency became the priority, and now the draft will be a main focus of the front office for weeks to come.
Per Hughes, though, there was a period just before the Jets moved to place the franchise tag during which they were “pretty confident” that a deal was going to get done. With the possibility of an agreement within their reach, New York intends to shift its focus back to Hall once the draft is in the rearview. Hughes adds that the front office has taken not of the three-year, $43.05MM deal Kenneth Walker just signed in Kansas City, and believing that Hall is a better back, they intend to extend him a bigger offer.
It’s unclear where their offer started and where Hall’s asking price was, but perhaps a bump to Walker’s numbers will get the two sides closer together. We won’t know that, though, likely until after the draft, when time allows for negotiations to continue.
I think we learned that under valuing RBs didn’t work. Are they worth 1st rd picks like Jeanty? No. Can you get them in the 7th rd? No. But good RBs are worth their weight in gold (see Walker in the playoffs). Hall is one of them. He has value to the Jets as a playmaker, then pay the man. Or trade him.
I disagree on both counts. Jeanty, Gibbs, Barkley, Robinson and others were worth first round picks. Seventh rounders and UDFAs at RB have had successful careers. Isiah Pacheco supplanted a first rounder in CEH while he was in KC. Hall himself was drafted just outside the first round and I’m sure that in hindsight teams wish they grabbed him in the first round.
Barkley was worth a first-round pick, but he was taken far too early, and the Giants never put anything around him to actually facilitate his success. You can’t just draft a runningback and throw him into a team with the worst offensive line in the league, bad coaching, and a bad QB, and expect him to succeed.
You build a team through the lines. Jeanty was a wasted pick for the Raiders. Sure you get lucky here and there on 7th rounders, but at the end of the day not many 7ths make season #2. I’ll give you Gibbs and Barkely, great players. Most of the other 1st Rd RBs like Najee Harris, Travis Etienne, Sony Michele, Rashaad Penny, or Clyde Edwards Helaire didn’t pan out as 1st rounders. That doesn’t mean they weren’t good players, but did they perform as a 1st Rd pick? A difference maker? Look at all the teams that made the SB the last 10 years. How many had dominant RBs? Not many. Dominant OL and DL, most of them.
All of this “will they or won’t they” articles with the Jets and Hall is getting pretty tiring. Going into the season, rumours had been swirling that they were ready to trade him, especially after adding Allen in 2024. Then the season started, and he was boom and bust with the way he was used. Then the trade deadline passed, and they refused to trade him. Now they want him to stay. But will they still use him inconsistently? He has shown he has the talent to be a top RB in the league, but can he be that staying in NY?
“They refused to trade him. Now they want him to stay?”
Them refusing to trade him is them telling everyone they want him to stay. Im not sure why you thought otherwise. Whole lot of words to say a whole lot of nothing.
Right? That’s not a contradiction at all.
Hall is a good RB that would do extremely well on a decent team. Typically, teams should try to hold onto good players. However, I personally don’t agree with the Jets keeping him. The team isn’t close to competing, and they have a couple of guys on rookie contracts that can carry the load at RB. Spend the money on other positions, to build a better overall team.
They are not short on cap space and they want to ideally give a rookie QB the most weapons possible for when they undoubtedly get one either this draft or next. Sending a solid RB away is not the recipe for building a better overall team.
Don’t do it young man…