The Cleveland Browns made their excellent pass rush even better on Friday night when they took defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. with the 54th overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.
Hall is a local product who went to Ohio State and said after getting picked that going to the Browns is the “greatest feeling ever in the world.”
The fans will love having a local product that loves the city of Cleveland on the roster from now on. Hall has a chance to flourish with the Browns, learning from veterans Shelby Harris and Dalvin Tomlinson. On top of that, Myles Garrett and company will draw most of the attention, and Hall will get many one-on-one chances to shine and show his talent.
Getting Zak Zinter following up on the Michael Hall pick was a great way to start the draft for the Browns. It is always good when someone loves coming to Cleveland and is local like Hall.
Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns kicked off their 2024 NFL draft class, selecting in-state product Michael Hall Jr. from Ohio State with the 54th overall pick. Leading up to the draft, former Ohio State corner and Browns star Denzel Ward sang the defensive tackle’s praises and said he hoped Cleveland would pick Hall.
“I hope so, that’s a good player..he’d be a good addition to the team.”
The pick surprised some, including myself, because of the talent they already have in a crowded defensive tackle room. But Ward is spot on. Hall is a very good player and a great addition to a great defensive line.
The team already has a great pass rush, and Hall’s explosiveness and athleticism will make it even better in 2024. The camp battle at defensive tackle and on the defensive line, in general, will be fascinating to watch as the team eventually settles on a 53-man roster.
#Browns CB Denzel Ward said several days ago he was in Andrew Berry's ear about getting another Buckeye in the draft and was asked specifically about now second-round pick Michael Hall Jr
"I hope so, that's a good player..he'd be a good addition to the team."
One of the best moments every year is the calls these players get from teams as they come off the board, and the 2024 NFL draft call between the Cleveland Browns and Michael Hall Jr. did not disappoint.
Part of his call that the Browns were taking him off of the board included a quiz from defensive coordinator. And it was a quiz that Hall aced with general manager Andrew Berry, head coach Kevin Stefanski, and more listening humorously.
The Browns, and particularly Hall, will never turn down explosive and lethal pass rushers. Hall Jr. fits the bill for the Browns in that regard as he was one of the top-graded pass rushers in the entire nation a year ago.
Hall Jr. will now get the chance to learn behind veterans like Dalvin Tomlinson, Shelby Harris, Quinton Jefferson, and Maurice Hurst the Akron native heads just a little further north.
Watch and enjoy the call between the Browns and Hall here.
attack, disrupt the line of scrimmage, and get after the QB 🫡
Michael Hall Jr. drafted by the Cleveland Browns #GoBucks
With the No. 54 selection in the 2024 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns selected Michael Hall Jr., a defensive tackle from Ohio State.
Cleveland has been on a great run of drafting former Buckeyes. It drafted Dawand Jones and Luke Wypler last season and signed Ronnie Hickman as an undrafted free agent. That streak continued with the addition of Hall in the second round this year.
Hall was the second former Ohio State standout off the board. Marvin Harrison Jr. was selected in the first round at No. 4 to the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night. With Day 2 featuring both the second and the third rounds, there will likely be more Buckeyes off the board.
Hall is the seventh interior defensive lineman taken, which was about where most draft experts had him slotted. No one doubts Hall’s athleticism, but his lack of ideal size likely kept him out of the first-round discussion.
Keeping it local!! Michael Hall Jr. is staying home!
The Cleveland Browns have made their first pick of the 2024 NFL draft, grabbing in-state product Michael Hall Jr. from Ohio State.
The run on defensive tackles continues, and the Browns have added even more pass rush to go on their already-loaded defensive line. It is a pick that surprised me because of the room they already have, but it’s a great pick in my books.
Hall is a fantastic athlete at the position, getting a 9.56 relative athletic score with an insane 1.65 10-yard split while running a 4.75 40-yard dash. He’s so ridiculously explosive off the line of scrimmage with excellent body control and gives opposing offensive lines fits on passing downs.
You won’t find many in this class that have more violent hands than Hall. His bag of tricks as a pass rusher is pretty impressive, and he can be a solid role player immediately. So, how do you guys grade the pick of Michael Hall Jr from Ohio State as the pick at 54?
Listen to former Browns DE Carl Nassib call out the pick!
The Cleveland Browns are on the board in the 2024 NFL draft, landing the Ohio State defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. with pick No. 54. And announcing the pick for the Browns? Former third round pick and defensive end Carl Nassib.
Nassib is representing the Trevor Project, an organization that supports and advocates for LGBTQIA youth, as he makes the pick for the team that drafted him. Nassib, of course, was a “Hard Knocks” star the year they were in Cleveland, giving financial advice to the other defensive linemen and how to invest their money.
He was later released on “Hard Knocks” by the Browns, landed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and played himself into a sizeable second contract with the Las Vegas Raiders.
With the 54th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns are the last team to make a selection, adding Ohio State defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. to their defensive trenches.
Hall Jr. is one of the most prolific pass-rushing interior defensive linemen in the class, his pass rush win rate and pass rush success numbers rank highly. While he only accumulated three sacks this past season with the Buckeyes, he was constantly in the backfield and wreaking havoc in opposing backfields.
While he has work to do as a run defender, Hall is in a position to ease himself onto the field and predominantly on passing downs. Where he is already a polished player. He now joins a room of Dalvin Tomlinson, Quinton Jefferson, Maurice Hurst, Shelby Harris, and Siaki Ika.
From Akron, the Browns keep the Northeast Ohio kid in Northeast Ohio.
The wait was worth it as the Browns landed a prolific pass rusher.
Projecting the Jaguars’ selections on day two of the 2024 NFL draft
Round one of the 2024 NFL draft is in the books, with Jacksonville moving down the order and netting picks this year and next, yet ultimately selecting the prospect it claimed was the choice all along on Thursday night, wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. from LSU.
“He was going to be the pick at 17,” Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said after the first round.
“We just felt the way the board looked and where the needs were, the teams in between us, we felt we had a chance. There’s risk, there’s reward. You make the move back, but we felt we were going to get a really good football player that we had high on our board with the move back. Fortunate that Brian was still there.”
Moving forward, the Jaguars have eight selections over the draft’s remaining six rounds, including picks No. 48 in the second round and No. 96 in the third round on Friday.
Additionally, the trade Jacksonville completed with Minnesota on Thursday strengthened the Jaguars’ arsenal of 2025 picks to nine, including six between rounds one through four. The club could use present and future picks as chips for a potential trade-up over the next 36 hours.
Jaguars Wire projects Jacksonville’s approach to its day two selections below.
Jaguars Wire used the Pro Football Focus mock draft simulator for this exercise, with all slider settings median.
Alabama defensive back Kool-Aid McKinstry (1) gestures in celebration after Tennessee failed to convert a 4th down in the fourth quarter of a football game between Tennessee and Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
Atlanta receives: No. 48 overall (second round), No. 116 (fourth round, via New Orleans)
A bigger move-up was considered here as Buffalo took cornerback Cooper DeJean with the first pick of the second round.
But with the run on wide receivers continuing into the 30s, pushing the next defensive back selection to No. 42 (Houston: safety Tyler Nubin), Jacksonville was fortunate to see another respected prospect slip outside their pre-draft projected range and didn’t rush a move in this scenario.
Still available at pick No. 43, Jacksonville trades with Atlanta — arguably in need of more picks after spending its first on a quarterback who probably won’t start until 2026 — to hop cornerback-needy Las Vegas (No. 44) and Indianapolis (No. 46) and take Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry.
The 5-foot-11 and 1/2-inch, 199-pound McKinstry is considered one of if not the best man coverage cornerback in this draft class, making it surprising that he fell out of the first round. His average athletic testing results while running on a Jones fracture in his right foot at Alabama’s pro day could have played a factor.
Still, McKinstry proved dominant against opposing receivers throughout his college career. He started a game by Week 2 of his freshman year and several more before it was over, defended 16 passes as a sophomore and allowed 40+ receiving yards in a game just twice as a junior.
In total, McKinstry tallied 92 tackles, two sacks, five tackles for loss, two interceptions and 25 passes defended over 42 games and three seasons with the Crimson Tide. He allowed 47.9% (70-of-146) of his career targets in coverage to be caught, per PFF.
With 35 punts returned, 418 punt return yards and 11.9 yards per punt return on his résumé from Alabama, McKinstry could reasonably fill the NFL’s recently-instituted second return specialist position for Jacksonville.
Round 3, Pick No. 96 (compensatory pick): Michael Hall Jr., DL, Ohio State
Oct 8, 2022; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. (51) sacks Michigan State Spartans quarterback Payton Thorne (10) in the second quarter of the NCAA Division I football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium.
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The Jaguars held onto the cornerstone of their defense by giving edge rusher Josh Allen a five-year extension earlier in April and solidified their interior defensive line by signing veteran Arik Armstead in free agency the month before.
But Jacksonville’s defensive trenches remain in need of depth reinforcements and potential long-term starters. Four interior linemen, including Armstead, will play the 2024 season at 30+ years old.
Enter Michael Hall Jr. from Ohio State, who Jacksonville snags here with plenty of tread on his tires. A redshirt season in 2021 and lingering injuries in 2022 limited Hall to 301 defensive snaps over his first two seasons, before starting in seven of 12 appearances in 2023.
In those three years, over 714 snaps, Hall recorded 45 tackles including 10 for loss, six sacks, one fumble recovery and 48 quarterback pressures, the latter stat via PFF. His 7.5 tackles for loss in 2022 led the Buckeyes, despite his lack of consistent playing time that season.
Hall presents a unique frame — 6-foot-2 and 3/4-inch, 290 pounds — making him a tweener defensive line prospect, likely to split time between strong-side defensive end and three-technique defensive tackle.
No matter how you look at Hall positionally, he possesses an above-average wingspan and arm length for a defensive line prospect, which is certain to catch Baalke’s eye. 13 of the 17 defensive line prospects he’s drafted in his career as a general manager have had 33+ inch arms; Hall’s are 33 and 1/2-inch.
Which draft prospect stood out most in Mobile this week?
The practices are in the books and all that’s left is the 2024 Senior Bowl itself in Mobile, Ala.
For many players, the game won’t be nearly as important, though. On the practice field, NFL coaches worked directly with many of the top prospects of the 2024 NFL draft class and had a chance to line them up one-on-one against other top prospects.
While it can be for some positions — like running back and safety, for instance — to really show their skills and physicality in practice, others had a chance to show their strengths.
With the game still two days away (Saturday at 1 p.m. ET), here are the players who helped themselves most with some stellar Senior Bowl practices this week:
With the Senior Bowl underway this week many of the top players around college football from last season are getting the chance to boost their 2024 NFL Draft stock.
That is the case for three big contributors to Buckeyes defense from last season as safety Josh Proctor, linebacker Tommy Eichenberg, and defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. are all taking part in Senior Bowl festivities.
Senior Bowl practices are a good chance for offensive and defensive lineman to stand out with one-on-one battles in the trenches.
The quickness of #OhioState DL Michael Hall was a problem for blockers today in 1-on-1s. He's a really disruptive 280 pounds. pic.twitter.com/jtpKtkoN1Y
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