The 2023 NFL Draft EDGE class has everything on a broad scale, but there are a select few prospects who truly have everything individually. With his scouting report, Auburn’s Derick Hall is one of them.
Derick Hall NFL Draft Profile
- Position: Edge rusher
- School: Auburn
- Current Year: Senior
- Height/Weight: 6’3″, 255 pounds
Since joining the Auburn Tigers as a four-star recruit in 2019, Hall has been one of the most productive defenders in the SEC. Particularly over the past two seasons, he’s nearly paced the conference with his production behind the line of scrimmage.
In 2021, Hall broke out as an SEC standout with nine sacks, 12.5 tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles in a career-best campaign. Already an established threat in 2022, he built on that breakout performance with 6.5 sacks, 11.5 TFLs, an interception, and two more forced fumbles.
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Hall has been productive, and one could argue he’d have been even more productive in 2022 if Auburn’s game scripts had invited more passing from the opposition. Nevertheless, there are enough pass-rushing reps on tape to back up Hall’s ability and his NFL projection. All that’s left now is to discern how high he might go next April.
Derick Hall Scouting Report
Hall isn’t always mentioned in the same breath as Will Anderson Jr., Tyree Wilson, Myles Murphy, and Isaiah Foskey. But he might just have a profile worthy of Round 1 consideration in his own right.
Hall’s Strengths
Arguably no edge rusher has as complete a skill set in the 2023 NFL Draft as Hall. It starts with his physical build. At 6’3″, 255 pounds, he’s a dense, compact, and well-leveraged edge defender. But with that size, he also brings rare proportional length, with arms nearly 35″ long.
Hall springs out of his stance with a quick first step, offering great explosive capacity off the line. He also has great closing burst when he has an open path to the QB and accelerates quickly on the attack with brisk foot speed. With his high-cut frame and long limbs, he can quickly widen his strides to compound acceleration upfield and breach the apex — adding an extra dimension to his explosive approach.
With his burst and elite proportional length, Hall has uniquely strong raw power capacity for his size. And with that raw power, he’s shown he can sustain and drive through power rushes with quick, steady leg drive upon engaging. In fact, he can effectively maximize his power output by aligning his base behind rushes and fully channeling with his length.
Additionally, Hall can torque through blocks in run defense with hip rotations and full extensions, and his length allows him to outreach far larger players and maintain grip.
With his elite composite power, Hall can line up inside and stunt along slanted angles, serving as an ice pick on exotic looks. But he also has a functional bend component as well, with his ankle flexion being the strongest trait in that category. Hall can suddenly chop rushes at the apex and tightly swivel around blockers to wrap up the QB, and he can also corner and accelerate into the pocket while keeping himself clean with his length.
Hall’s bend might not be elite, but he has flashed the ability to sink under tackles and pinch the apex while sustaining his leg drive. He also has the flexibility to recoil at contact while carrying acceleration around the edge, as he’s able to snap up and rip past the apex. And as a contain defender, he has enough hip flexibility to flip around, break off blocks, and flood to the boundary in pursuit.
Hall’s burst and power are his strongest physical attributes, but he’s a very agile and twitchy rusher as well. He has the lateral twitch to quickly adjust attack paths and load sudden momentum into contact. And with his lateral athleticism, he can quickly work across-face against tackles and counter inside after feigning outside.
Hall has the change-of-direction ability to quickly redirect momentum, shift around, and engulf opponents in pursuit. Additionally, the Auburn EDGE has the short-area twitch and foot speed to quickly sidestep blocks and slice through gaps in run defense.
With his length and frame density, Hall can boast play strength as a positive on his report as well. In run defense, he can quickly forklift blockers with his length and prevent displacement, then pry his way into gaps and swallow up runs. He has the play strength to establish a half-man relationship on the edge and long-arm blockers to secure the boundary.
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Play strength is ultimately what allows Hall to set a strong edge, then violently rip down anchors to deconstruct and engage in pursuit. But his strong natural leverage also contributes to this. Hall very consistently leverages himself to maximize control and rarely plays upright at contact. He’s shown he can routinely attain proper alignment, both when holding positioning and exerting power. He can lower his pads, activate his base, and fully channel his traits.
We’ve established that there are very few holes in Hall’s physical profile, but he also does well to maximize that profile with execution and hand usage. In particular, Hall has a vast array of power combos. He can use energetic stutters to widen tackles, then abruptly align his hips and bull-rush inside with force. He’s also able to stack violent rip moves and swims off long-arms and bull-rushes after driving blockers to the apex and getting a step.
Beyond those combinations, Hall has a forklift rip, and can also work across-face with quick double-swipes, gaining separation with his lateral agility. After displacing tackles with power by violently extending inside the torso, he can pry off blocks with active hand usage. And at the start of reps, he’s shown he can offset tackles with initial rushing angles, then surge inside and capitalize.
Overall, Hall is a high-motor rusher who consistently works through contact and seeks out the QB with energy, and he has impressive recovery ability mid-rush. He’s able to maintain his balance and drive even after lurching and having his extensions snatched by blockers. That relentless energy in the face of resistance makes him a constant pressure threat.
In pursuit, Hall brings plenty to like as well. He peels off the line and hustles to run down short passes on crucial downs. And with his closing speed and elite wingspan, he can envelop opponents in the backfield when he has an open lane.
Hall has good pursuit speed, which he can use to play to the boundary and wall off outside runs. He’s also shown he can read keys quickly on options and follow the ball, and he’s able to recognize motions and quickly pursue to the boundary. Finally, Hall proactively uses his length to reach past blocks and force ball carriers out of preferred paths.
Hall’s Areas for Improvement
As you might have gathered from the wall of text above, Hall’s 2023 NFL Draft scouting report is overwhelmingly positive. That said, there are a few things to note on the negative side.
With his high-cut frame, Hall doesn’t quite have elite hip flexibility or bend around the arc. While he has enough bend to work with, the Auburn EDGE can’t always shrink himself and pinch the corner.
Hall doesn’t have elite play strength, either. He can be directed out of plays after peeking outside to seal the edge. And as a pass rusher, he can be locked down by stronger anchors early in pass-rushing reps.
With his high-cut frame, Hall does occasionally drift a bit too tall when adjusting angles. As a pass rusher, he’s sometimes over-reliant on his power element to break into reps early. He can employ more variance with initial moves and continue to expand his arsenal.
In pursuit, while Hall’s combination of athleticism and length is appealing, his game is imperfect. His motor dies at times when he’s not on the play side, and his tackling ability is very streaky. His play strength and wrapping ability can improve, as he sometimes slips off ball carriers in space.
Lastly, Hall’s play recognition on options can be inconsistent. The Auburn EDGE sometimes triggers prematurely on the wrong player.
Current Draft Projection for Auburn EDGE Derick Hall
Hall doesn’t always receive first-round hype, but he grades in the Round 1 range as a potential Top-32 player in the 2023 NFL Draft class. He’s worth a look in the late first, and if he falls to Day 2, he should assuredly be one of the first players selected after the intermission.
Hall has the production to validate his traits, and watching the tape, he checks nearly all of the physical and operational boxes you look for on the edge. Some of his traits — notably play strength and bend — are non-elite, but he doesn’t have any glaring holes in his game, and his complete pallet of tools makes him a rare high-floor, high-upside prospect.
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With his burst and elite proportional length, Hall’s power element is his most enticing quality. He not only has high-end raw power, but he consistently maximizes that power with functional application, using proper alignment, torque, and full extensions to plow through tackles. And upon displacing, he’s shown he can capitalize with violent rips, swims, swipes, and other combos.
Looking at his profile as a whole, Hall has the burst, length, power, agility, and hot motor to be a treacherous pass-rushing threat at the next level, and he has enough bend and hand strength to properly accentuate his powerful play style.
Particularly, as a stand-up edge rusher in odd-front alignments, Hall can be a productive impact pass rusher at the NFL level for a long time, and as long as he shores up his tackling ability, he can provide early-down utility as well.