Dante Hall: 'Human Joystick' or 'Washed-up Chief?'

Posted Jan 26, 2007 1:00PM By Phil Yoon (RSS feed)

Over at Arrowhead Pride, Chris is running a series of his five most disappointing Chiefs in 2006. #4 on his list is Dante Hall, who only a few years ago was perhaps the biggest hero in Kansas City.

Loyal readers of this blog know that I don't put all the blame for his struggles on Hall himself. As I have maintained, Hall is someone who is at his very best running at full speed in open space. When he has to juke the initial tackler, Hall has trouble accelerating again, allowing defenders to catch up to him easily.

In many ways, the questions surrounding Hall are the same as those surrounding Trent Green. Do you gamble that Hall can be an impact player again because the circumstances surrounding his decline in 2006 can be fixed, or do you let him go and start anew? With Green, his main problems are age and the after-effects of the concussion. With Hall, his problem is his inability to adjust to the blocking scheme and personnel.

Plenty of blame has to go to the special teams unit, since kick and punt returners should not be confronted by would-be tacklers immediately after catching the ball, but Hall's style is about the worst fit for the Chiefs' current special teams unit. It is easier to replace one returner than to fix a whole unit of blockers. As much as I root for the guy, it might be time to let Dante Hall go to a team that can take full advantage of his skills.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-26-2007 @ 3:20PM

Jim said...

"...but Hall's style is about the worst fit for the Chiefs' current special teams unit."

Please tell me what player's style best fits the Chiefs special teams unit. And if Hall was so effective before this year, fitting to the Chiefs blocking scheme, who in the hell would change to render Hall ineffective? Who's responsible for the decision-making? That's right, we all know who it is.

The best gauge of whether Hall is effective or not would not be to sit here and dissect his stats, moves or anything else. Ask opposing coaches. I bet, to a man, they'll tell you they still have to game plan for Hall like they game plan for nary another returner in the league. The answer is to draft a WR so Hall can focus primarily on his return game.

1-26-2007 @ 6:03PM

E Beard said...

Jeff Webb returned a couple this year did not do the juking and jiving and got good returns.If Dante would just run he would be a lot better.Trade him and get what you can get.

1-27-2007 @ 11:49AM

drum said...

I agree with #2 the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line if at all possable, Not 3 steps back 2 front 3 sideways and 4 steps back again right before he gets tackled

1-27-2007 @ 11:38AM

1-27-2007 @ 11:52AM