Jaren Hall named Vikings starting QB with season on the line
It's Jaren Hall's turn to try and save the Vikings.
Head coach Kevin O'Connell named the rookie from BYU the team's starting quarterback for Sunday night's prime-time showdown against the Green Bay Packers – a game that will either keep the Vikings alive in the playoff race or eliminate them from contention.
O'Connell confirmed via an announcement on Vikings social media accounts that Hall has been named the starter for Week 17. The post simply reads: "Head Coach Kevin O’Connell has announced that Jaren Hall will start for the [Vikings] Sunday night."
"He's had a few great weeks of preparation and looking forward to seeing what Jaren can do," O'Connell said Thursday.
Hall started Minnesota's Week 9 game against Atlanta but suffered a concussion on the second offensive series of the game. Josh Dobbs replaced him and led Minnesota to consecutive wins before struggling in consecutive starts against the Broncos, Bears and Raiders.
Nick Mullens replaced Dobbs in the fourth quarter against Las Vegas and then threw six interceptions in back-to-back losses to the Bengals and Lions, essentially paving the path for Hall to reclaim the starting job in a must-win game Sunday night against the rival Packers.
"We have to maintain possession of the football. The turnover margin has been well talked about all season long," O'Connell explained after praising Nick Mullens for leading the Vikings to 24 points in back-to-back starts. "Just felt like at this time, giving Jaren a full week of preparation and a clear-cut mindset on the game plan, excited to see what Jaren can ultimately do."
"What made me feel comfortable with this is knowing how Jaren's put in the work," the coach added.
Hall said it took him "about two weeks" to feel like himself again after his "brain was a little rattled" in his first career start against the Falcons. He was the emergency QB for a couple of Dobbs' starts before being elevated to the backup each of the last two weeks.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.