An ACL tear in Week 7 can often compromise the start of the next season for an NFL running back, but there’s maybe some good news on Breece Hall: his doctors and surgeons think he’s rehabbing ahead of schedule.
“I don’t want to give out too much, but yeah, I feel like I’m recovering faster than normal, and I’ll be ready for whatever coaches need me for,” Hall said Monday as the Jets cleaned out their lockers at the team facility. “Right now, I’m worried about staying on my nutrition and coming in and working as hard as I can every day.”
When Hall tore his ACL in Week 7, he said initially, he had no idea what had happened.
“I just cut and fell, so I wondered if maybe I just tweaked something. I walked off and to the sideline, but they put me on the cart just in case,” Hall said. “Nothing showed on the x-ray, but the doctors did some mobility stuff and they felt like my ACL wasn’t intact. Had to wait for the MRI, which showed the tear.”
Frustrating to find out, but like Alijah Vera-Tucker, who went down in the same game, Hall chose not to dwell on the negative – but unlike AVT, the rookie back felt bad he wasn’t able to help his then 5-2 Jets keep pushing forward.
“It was frustrating, but you can’t dwell in that. I had the mentality that you have to accept it for what it is,” Hall said. “But after I left, I felt the offense wasn’t the same, and I feel that’s partly on me. They drafted me to be a game changer and playmaker. We lose me and AVT, what are we gonna do now? It’s difficult to watch because you feel part of it is your fault, but it is what it is.”
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If anything, he’s a little made that he lost out on a possible Offensive Rookie of the Year nod, which might now go to teammate Garrett Wilson.
“I think Garrett low-key knows I’d have won it,” Hall smiled, “but nah, we joke about it, and if anyone else won it I’d want it to be him.”
Since he’s been out, Hall has reached out to several running backs who also tore ACLs earlier in their careers, singling out Christian McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley – the latter of whom worked with some of the same trainers and rehab doctors, given the common location and facility.
“Those guys were devastated for me, but it was good just hearing what they had to say about attacking rehab and staying mentally right,” Hall said. “This was big for me because it’s my first major injury, so I was cautious, but it’s just about finding that confidence back in your knee.”
Barkley wasn’t the same until this season, three years after the ACL tear (although part of that may have been a lackluster Giants offense), but Hall plans to beat that timeline.
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“Some guys may not come back the same, but some may come back better, and my mentality is I want to attack it and come back better,” he said.
“You have to gain that confidence back, and I feel I am.”
Hall believes the Jets still showed a lot of growth even in a tough end to last season, and the ending is just more motivation for him (and others) to come back strong with a chip on their shoulders.
“We’ll be fine, because guys put their best foot forward every day, and that’s all you can ask for,” Hall said, “but this will be motivation for us, because we wanted to make a good run at this thing. I’m confident in everybody we have. We had a Top 3 defense, and with me, AVT, Mekhi (Becton) back and all the pieces we have, we can be a Top 10 offense and a playoff team.
So we’ll be fine.”
That fits in with the mantra of ‘Finish’ that head coach Robert Saleh used and put on t-shirts hanging in everyone’s locker Monday, and Hall himself said he feels the Jets “sold ourselves short” but also showed a lot of fight.
And he’s hoping that when they do return for 2023, he and the offense get to run it back with their offensive coordinator.
“I love being around him every day He’s weird, but he’s also cool, and he’s a good person who, for the most part, puts us in a good position to be successful,” Hall said of Mike LaFleur. “Being around guys with that different personality and type of thinking is good, and regardless of our record or results, it’s not just one person; it comes down to all 11 people putting their hand in the dirt.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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