Washington Redskins Unheralded Players: WR Emanuel Hall
By Ian Cummings
Redskins WR Emanuel Hall Player Breakdown
It feels fitting to start by reiterating Hall’s measurables. At 6-foot-3, 195, Hall logged a 4.39 40-yard dash, a 43.5-inch vertical, and a 141-inch broad jump. He’s an insane athlete, and on tape, his ability to gear up quickly and generate downfield separation is a trait that immediately stands out. Hall’s size also naturally gives him a leg up on most defensive backs, and while he has to learn to better use that size, having the trait in possession is a plus in itself.
Hall is an incredibly explosive receiver, and not just over long stretches; he has very good short-area quickness as well, and his ability to stop and start abruptly is near the top of his class. Hall can throw defenders off balance with his movement skills, as the clip below demonstrates.
Emanuel Hall out here making cornerbacks look silly. -CS pic.twitter.com/m9BKgblK1V
— Scouts Elite NFL (@ScoutsEliteNFL) January 22, 2019
Hall loved using diverse vertical releases in college to gain initial separation on defensive backs and use that separation to stretch the gap down the field with his speed. Here’s another example of Hall disrupting balance at the line and using that to gain an edge downfield.
Emanuel Hall has some of the best vertical releases of any wideout in this class. Legit sub 4.4 guy who is as fluid as they come. You don’t find 6’3 pass-catchers like him on trees. Continues to be criminally underrated. pic.twitter.com/BQ7lKhaw1g
— Carter Donnick (@CDonnick1) January 17, 2019
So, Hall has game-breaking explosiveness and speed for his size, and his releases are clean. Why’d he go undrafted then? The answer isn’t straight-forward, as there were a lot of factors that impacted Hall’s ultimate fate.
Hall’s vertical game is strong, but he’s extremely raw in other areas, such as route running and catch technique. He also battled injuries frequently in college, never having played a full season. Additionally, there were some concerns surrounding Hall’s attitude brought to light by NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein — perhaps being so confident in his physical abilities, that the finer details of the game eluded him.
Hall, who was once a very promising prospect, ended up being released by two teams in the span of a month, and went unclaimed for three months during the 2019 season. This turn of events supports the evidence for his fall. But since those dark days, Hall has seemingly rebounded. He recently graduated from Missouri, and has a new opportunity to break into the NFL with the Redskins. A clean slate, if there ever was one.