Jets' Breece Hall projected to be a fringe Top 10 running back by ESPN

What a difference a year makes. Before the start of the 2024 NFL season, ESPN had New York Jets running back Breece Hall ranked second overall, behind only San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey, out of all running backs. It was supposed to be a breakout year for Hall and, potentially, a Super Bowl run for the Jets now that Aaron Rodgers was finally healthy.

Instead, Rodgers appeared to be finally losing to Father Time while the entire team regressed hard. Former head coach Robert Saleh was fired halfway through the year and GM Joe Douglass followed him shortly thereafter as the Jets went on to win just five games.

As for Hall, he was not immune to the team’s collective backward step. He ended the season with just 876 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns. It got so bad that, after the season when the Jets installed a new GM and head coach, most analysts expected Hall to be traded away for draft picks.

But the new Jets regime kept Hall and have professed their confidence in him to have a bounce back year, and ESPN (mostly) agrees. In a recent ranking of the Top 10 running backs for the 2025 season, Hall fell just short of the mark, landing a spot in the honorable mentions portion. Regarding Hall, an anonymous NFL coordinator had this to say: "He's been one of the best in the league at points. I just haven't felt the same way recently. I know the injuries have been an issue."

Added to this, an anonymous AFC executive said, “That's not all his fault. He was in a bad offense. Still has good lower-body balance and home run juice."

Taken together, these two quotes seem to summarize the general mood from fans and analysts about Hall’s future in the NFL. Injuries have held him back to some degree, but the biggest problem, which is now seemingly fixed, was the coaching staff and front office. If new head coach Aaron Glenn lives up to the hype, this Jets team should take a significant stride forward in 2025, and Hall should play his way into a handsome contract extension, even if he has to share snaps with the up-and-coming Braelon Allen.

Suffice it to say, if Hall ends up just outplaying ESPN’s fringe-Top 10 expectations and lands somewhere in the 6-8 range, that would likely be a successful year not only for Hall, but for the entire team, too.