Quote:
Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat
Hall was OUTSTANDING during his 4 years in Atlanta.
DeAngelo Hall
He was also selected to the pro-bowl in 2005. If anything, his career shows that he was horribly misused in Oakland, a place where almost no players excel (remember how bad Randy Moss was there?). To say that the real Hall is just the "average" of his performance with two different teams in 2008 is to ignore the entire body of work in his 5 year NFL career.
In addition to being an excellent starting corner in this league, Hall is also durable. He has only missed 2 games in the past 4 years - one was in 2005 and the other was this year, as he was transitioning between two teams. He came to our team and picked up the defense very quickly. By the end of the season, he was our #1 CB and arguably playing better than any redskins cornerback since champ bailey.
I understand that you aren't ga-ga over Hall, but don't sell him short, either. If we extend him, we're not "taking a chance" on a guy whos play has been haphazard. Aside from half a season in Oakland, he's had a stellar career. If resigned here, we have every reason to expect him to be the best, most consistent, most durable cornerback we've had in years. When you have Shawn Springs, Fred Smoot, and Carlos Rogers on your roster, you can count on them either playing poorly in several games or missing large chunks of the season entirely due to injuries. With Hall, you can bank on having him start and play at a high level for every game for the duration of his contract. That "safety" is worth paying a little extra for, dont you think? |
I'm not trying to sell him short, but I also can't act like he wasn't heavily overrated in Atlanta.
One thing that he DID do well in Atlanta was improve a little bit each year he was there. But I mean, at no point in Atlanta did he ever look like he would be a shutdown corner. That much is clear.
I can say some nice things about the guy. He IS improving as a player on a yearly basis. He does have fantastic ball skills. He was deserving of a starting spot on this team based on his play alone.
But my opinions on Hall aren't ignoring his time in Atlanta. Actually, it's quite the opposite. He was going to pro bowls in Atlanta well before he could actually cover any teams' number one receiver.
This isn't a new opinion I've had because of the Oakland days, here's me from 12-04-07:
http://www.thewarpath.net/388701-post22.html
(I also found
this which has nothing to do with D Hall)