Jaguars new wide receivers coach Chad Hall brings energy, experience to the position group

Chad Hall is unique among NFL wide receivers coaches.

One of the two new assistants for the Jacksonville Jaguars this season, Hall played football at the Air Force Academy and served in the military for five years, but he currently sports a ponytail and favors bucket hats or baseball caps turned backward.

While playing for the Wesleyan School in Norcross, Ga., he was recruited as a quarterback by Air Force, and as a cornerback by Vanderbilt but wound up playing running back, wide receiver and on returns for the Falcons, with 2,606 career rushing yards and 21 touchdowns, and 77 receptions for 780 yards.

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Hall ran for 275 yards and had 333 all-purpose yards in a 2007 victory over Army, added 272 all-purpose yards in a victory over Notre Dame and finished the season with 1,478 yards and 15 touchdowns rushing, and 50 receptions for 524 yards and three scores receiving. He was the only player in the nation to lead an FBS team in both rushing and receiving that year.

Hall gave the NFL a try after his military service was over, playing 24 games for the Eagles (when Jaguars coach Doug Pederson was the quarterbacks coach) and Kansas City from 2010 to 2013.

Hall had a 10-day stay with the Jaguars during the 2014 training camp but was cut and embarked on a career as an assistant and was with Buffalo from 2017-22. He’s back in Jacksonville again and is presiding over a deep and talented wide receiver room with a mix of veterans and younger players.

Everyone in the room, it seems, is chomping at the bit for the season to get here, coach and players alike.

“They want to get better each and every day … they’re very unselfish,” Hall said of the wide receivers. “We’re working towards that.”

Striving for more

Hall said the common thread among the wide receivers, from veterans Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk and Zay Jones to sixth-round draft pick Parker Washington, is a sense of humility.

“None of them thinks they’re the best,” he said. “None of them thinks they’re close to the best. They all think they have to get better to get to that next level.”

That includes Kirk (84 receptions for 1,108 yards and eight TDs in 2022) and Jones (82 for 823 yards, five scores) — who both set their career highs in catches and yards — and Ridley (90 for 1,374 and nine TDs in his last full season, 2020.

The list of targets for quarterback Trevor Lawrence looks formidable but Hall said all of them think they can improve even more on their benchmark standards.

“Christian told the whole group [during a recent OTA], ‘we are not close to where we need to be,’” Hall said. “We’ve all got to grow together.”

Hall is a positive force

Perhaps it helps that their position coach, all 5 foot 7 of him, had to battle for every shred of playing time he ever got in the NFL, after a college career in which he was one of the best offensive players in Air Force history. He then put in his service to his country and had more than a cup of coffee in the NFL, within 16 receptions for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

Pederson said Hall's energy has been infectious.

“Obviously a guy that’s worked extremely hard to get to this level as a coach,” Pederson said on Monday at TIAA Bank Field before the Jaguars' first mandatory minicamp practice. “I think that really rubs off on the players in a positive way and what I’ve seen this offseason is the respect that the players give him. I can’t say enough good things, positive things about Chad and what he’s already doing in that room already.”

Hall obviously needed a strong work ethic and a sense of duty at the Air Force Academy and in the military. He said his parents Jay and Leslie Hall provided an early example when his father started a marketing business at the age of 25 and then nurtured it through some tough times.

"It took a while," he said. "We were living, basically, off my mom's teacher salary and then his company started to grow. That's what he instilled in me. You have to work for it. Nothing's going to be given. Everything is earned. It could take a day, could take six or seven years ... you never know. But if you have that goal in mind and you never get distracted, nothing gets in your way."

Building a bond with Ridley

Ridley is grateful that he finally has a wide receivers coach that played the position in the NFL, however, sparingly. His college position coaches were Billy Napier, a quarterback, and Mike Locksley, a defensive back; and his two wide receiver coaches in Atlanta, Dave Brock and Raheem Morris, had a defensive background as players.

That didn’t keep Ridley from flourishing in both places but he’s eager to play for someone who actually ran patterns and caught the ball on the college and NFL level.

“He can see it like I see it,” Ridley said. “I’m very excited to work with him. He’s played the position in college and high school, seen a lot of guys, and then with the Bills he coached Stefon Diggs, Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley — I think he’s a great coach.”

Hall returns the favor. He and Ridley have one thing in common: they’re the new guys in the program.

“We’ve held him back a little bit … he wants to get out there and get that chemistry going with Trevor,” Hall said of Ridley. “That will happen in training camp when he’s a full go but he’s working his a— off, learning the offense, studying. He wants to learn more. He wants to play ball. It’s been a while and he wants to play ball and compete.”

Making the move to Duval

When Hall was hired to replace Chris Jackson, questions were raised in Buffalo as to why he’d take a lateral move to another AFC contender.

Pederson wonders, why not? Free agents now want to come to Jacksonville. Veterans want to stay. Wouldn’t a position coach jump at the chance to work with a talented bunch of wide receivers and a quarterback and team on the rise?

“Doug and I have always stayed in touch since 2010,” Hall said. “It’s almost like the same vibe. What he believes in, I believe in, I believe how he’s leading and his leadership is great. I’ve learned so much from him.”

Hall is also closer to family in Georgia (his sister Kelly is married to Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford).

Pederson said he’s the lucky one.

“Chad and I have history … I’ve coached him when he was in Philadelphia,” Pederson said. “[General manager] Trent [Baalke] had him in San Francisco as a player so there’s history there. Everyone’s looking to further their careers and were just fortunate this year that Chad was available.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Chad Hall brings enthusiasm, energy to Jaguars wide receiver room