Jaren Hall will be Vikings starting quarterback vs. the Packers

Jaren Hall was the first Vikings quarterback to succeed Kirk Cousins when the starter tore his right Achilles tendon on Oct. 29 at Lambeau Field. With the Vikings' playoff chances riding on Sunday's game against the Packers, they will turn again to the rookie quarterback.

Coach Kevin O'Connell announced Thursday the Vikings will start Hall on Sunday night against Green Bay, giving him back the starting job nearly two months after a concussion ended his brief stint as the team's No. 1 quarterback. With veteran backup Nick Mullens on injured reserve, Hall played the final 11 snaps of the Vikings' win over the Packers after Cousins went down, and started the following week against the Falcons, but left that game after only 11 snaps when he sustained a concussion while trying to reach the end zone on a third-down scramble.

Hall's injury opened the door for Joshua Dobbs, who had been acquired in a trade-deadline deal with the Cardinals five days earlier. Dobbs led the Vikings to a comeback victory in Atlanta and a win at home against the Saints the following Sunday, extending the team's win streak to five games and keeping the job through the team's bye week despite six turnovers in two losses before it. But after Dobbs was benched for Mullens following three scoreless quarters against the Raiders, and after Mullens threw six interceptions in a pair of losses that knocked the Vikings out of the lead for a wild-card spot, the Vikings came back to Hall this week.

"Nick Mullens did a lot of really good things," O'Connell said. "The comfort he has in our offense came to life in a lot of different ways, being able to beat a lot of different coverage variations, especially last week with how JJ [Justin Jefferson] was defended. Nick had a big-time part of that and gave us a chance to compete. It's just we've had some really critical turnovers that's made it really hard to win football games. What made me feel comfortable with this is knowing how Jaren's put in the work throughout this time, even these last couple weeks being the number two [QB], how he's taken advantage of that and the comfort he feels in the game plan."

Against the Falcons, Hall, a fifth-round pick out of BYU, completed five of his six passes for 78 yards, running twice for 11 yards before he was injured.

O'Connell has said on several occasions this season how important Hall's development is to him, and after Hall returned from the concussion, the Vikings had kept him as their third quarterback until Week 15, when they gave him more practice work as the No. 2 quarterback rather than running the scout team as the No. 3 QB.

During that time, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said, Hall has been able to work on details such as syncing his footwork with his reads, so he's arriving at the top of his dropback while receivers are breaking open on their routes.

"It takes time for that," Phillips said. "He's worked really hard. All he's done is improved. The thing with Jaren I think everyone would agree with, that fans look at the positive side most of the time, like, 'Put the backup in there,' right? But there is an unknown factor for a guy who just hasn't played a lot of NFL football. We liked a lot of the things we saw in a very small sample size against Atlanta before he got hurt. There certainly are some things that we just don't know, in those situations, how he'll respond. But you feel like you know the person. You know his day-to-day work ethic, you know his preparation. And so you feel like you're betting on traits when you're putting him in the game."

Hall said Thursday his concussion served as a reminder of "how fast guys play" in the NFL, adding he'll try to use discretion about taking off to run or diving headfirst, like he did in Atlanta.

"There's no superhero ball that you need to play," he said. "The game is won over four quarters and not one play, and you've just got to remember that. If you do what you need to do delivering the ball, you don't have to be in those situations, for the most part."

He will get his chance with the Vikings likely needing two wins and some help to reach the playoffs. The move to Hall is the Vikings' second quarterback switch in four games since their bye week. It stands to reason it will be their last, either because Hall plays well enough to keep the job in a Vikings win or because they opt to give the rookie another start if a loss to the Packers makes their season finale in Detroit meaningless.

Weeks after returning to the scout team, Hall will start on national television Sunday night with the Vikings' season riding on how he does. If he delivers, he could make himself a bigger part of the team's quarterback picture for 2024.

"You let the importance of it play in your preparation," he said. "With that, you just focus on every play, you focus on every snap when you're preparing; you focus on your checks and go through your process. Then come game day, I think as long as you just stay focused on that process, you don't worry about all the external factors and what's going on. I think that's where the players are their best."