What the Vikings can expect from their newest defensive tackle

The Good

Starting experience

P.J. Hall has only been in the NFL for two years, but during this time he was able to rack up a total of 18 starts, including 12 last season. Shamar Stephen is the only current Vikings defensive tackle who has started more games than Hall during his career.

Experience in Minnesota’s scheme

An underrated aspect of Monday’s trade is the fact that Hall has been playing in a defensive scheme for the last two years that is very similar to what the Vikings currently run under Mike Zimmer.

Current Raiders defensive coordinator, Paul Guenther, used to work on Zimmer’s defensive staff when the two were assistants with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2008 to 2013. So unsurprisingly, Guenther took a bunch of the things he learned from the current Minnesota head coach and utilized them to build his own defensive scheme for Las Vegas.

Athletic freak

Heading into the 2018 NFL Draft, Hall put up some very impressive testing numbers. His 40-yard dash time (4.73 seconds), vertical jump (38 inches), broad jump (116 inches), and his bench press reps (36) all ranked in the 94th percentile or higher among defensive tackles in the MockDraftable.com database.

Previous interest from Minnesota

Thanks to those eyebrow-raising testing numbers during the pre-draft process in 2018, Hall generated interest from a bunch of teams from around the league, including the Vikings. Minnesota actually included the defensive tackle as one of the prospects they invited for their annual Top 30 event where he got a chance to meet with Vikings coaches and staff in addition to getting an in-person look at the team’s facilities.