Jets' Bryce Hall makes most of opportunity in return to starting role
Jets cornerback Bryce Hall celebrates after scoring on a fumble recovery against the Broncos during the second half of an NFL game Sunday in Denver. Credit: AP/Jack Dempsey
Bryce Hall had a message for his teammates before the Jets defeated the Broncos on Sunday: Trust me. I can do this.
Hall, who started at cornerback opposite Sauce Gardner with D.J. Reed inactive because of a concussion, crowned a successful game in scene-stealing fashion, scooping up Quincy Williams’ strip-sack of Russell Wilson and returning it 39 yards for a touchdown with 29 seconds left in the Jets’ 31-21 win.
Hall, who started at cornerback in the first two years of his career but was relegated to special teams after Gardner and Reed joined the team, sought to reassure his teammates.
“I just wanted them to know that they could have the utmost confidence because I was just going to be ready,” Hall said Monday of the conversation. “And I felt like when I got my opportunity — just the work, the preparation leading up to that just gave me the confidence and the ability to tell my team, ‘Hey, you know, you guys can count on me. Don’t worry.’ ”
Added coach Robert Saleh: “It’s not easy. It’s kind of the same situation as Zach [Wilson]. He [Hall] was the starting corner and then we drafted Sauce. We paid D.J. and so he had to take this backup role. He sat back and still did everything, prepared the way he needed to, did everything that was asked of him.
“He went from being a guy that [special teams coordinator] Brant Boyer wanted nothing to do on special teams to being a guy where he was like, ‘God, I can’t live without him.’ . . . So it’s a credit to him and the way he’s approached it as a pro.”
Breece opens things up
Wide receiver Allen Lazard heaped praise on Breece Hall, who scored the Jets’ only offensive touchdown Sunday and had 194 yards of total offense (177 rushing).
Lazard noted that the running back’s game will continue to make the Jets better in a number of facets. It was Hall’s first touchdown of the year and it happened on the same field where he tore an ACL last season.
“It’s going to open up the pass game especially,” Lazard said. “They’re going to start putting eight, nine guys in the box to try to overload it to try and prevent him from popping off a run . . . He’s making stuff happen with plays that aren’t designed to go that way, and that’s what is going to make it hard for defensive coordinators to be able to scheme against us.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
