The Bucs made a conscious decision in the offseason to get younger and more athletic along their defensive line. Enter second-year edge rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and rookie interior defensive lineman Logan Hall. The two of them had large shoes to fill with the departures of veterans Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh. But with each player the potential was there for quick penetrating players who could elevate the Bucs pass rush. And one of them had his coming out party this past week against the Packers.

Hall was drafted to be a gap-shooting interior rusher. In college at the University of Houston, he was utilized all over the defensive line, logging snaps at edge rusher as well as defensive tackle. And while the Bucs have utilized him similarly to begin the 2022 season, he is at his best playing the 3-technique where he can lean on his long frame and quick burst to get up field and wreck pockets.

Bucs DTs Logan Hall and Vita Vea and OLBs Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Shaq Barrett – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

You could see a lot of these traits on his college tape. But Hall was supposed to be a bit of a project as well. He weighed 283 pounds at his NFL combine weigh-in. That would be a difficult weight to play at in the NFL against interior offensive linemen who regularly weigh in excess of 315 lbs. For a player to put on the 20-30 lbs. Hall will be asked to it takes multiple years. Especially, when that player logs half of their games in the Tampa heat.

And so, Hall was supposed to play third fiddle to veterans Vita Vea and Akiem Hicks.

Fate has a way of thrusting things upon us. Hall has felt the force of fate already in his young career. Hicks, known for an injury-marred career, suffered a torn plantar-fascia during Week 2. Suddenly Hall has been called up from his role as Alfred to Vea’s Batman and Hicks’ Robin to the role of “Boy Wonder.”

Entering his third professional regular season game, Hall would be called upon to provide a pass rush spark to a defensive line that had under-performed the hype surrounding it thus far in the season. And boy did he deliver.

Here are some of the numbers before we get to the tape. Hall played 27 snaps, of which he was able to pass rush on 23 of them. Per Pro Football Focus, he tallied four pressures, one hurry, two quarterback hits, and his first sack as a pro. Hall was easily the most disruptive pass rusher on the day for the Bucs. His pressure rate of 17.4% is significantly higher than that of the league average for interior defensive linemen, which hovers around 10-12%.

Now let’s take a look at how Hall was able to win.

Using Length To Create Power

On this rep Hall doesn’t mess around with a wide variety of pass rush moves. He doesn’t need to. Green Bay seeks out lighter, quicker offensive linemen to execute their wide zone running game. Right guard Royce Newman isn’t known for a strong anchor, and you can see why here as Hall is able to get into his chest and drive him back into the face of quarterback Aaron Rodgers with a bull rush.

Nothing fancy, but quite effective. Hall displays strong leg drive to keep Newman moving backwards despite numerous attempts to re-anchor. The only critique of the Bucs lineman here is that his launch was a tad bit slow off the snap. Had his get-off been more explosive he could have really disrupted Rodgers further.

Using Speed To Penetrate

That’s not to say that Hall can’t launch quickly. There is explosiveness to his game, and you can see it on display here. Keep in mind as an athlete, Hall registers very strongly as compared to other defensive tackles over the years with elite speed and good explosion. He also has the agility to re-direct, which is not common in every interior defender.

Logan Hall at both DE and DT. https://t.co/PxiE5djezK pic.twitter.com/9bVodpEeAR

— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) September 10, 2022

The Bucs rookie puts that speed and explosiveness on display during the play above as he gets to the guards outside shoulder quickly. Then he bounces off the stab Newman throws at him, crashing into right tackle Elgton Jenkins. At this point he is able to go full wrecking ball, splitting the two linemen before introducing himself to Rodgers like my mother showing up unannounced for dinner.

Using The Swim

Watching Hall on a snap-to-snap basis, it is apparent he is most comfortable with a swim move as his go-to for winning a pass rush. It makes sense. The man is 6-foot-6. He is going to be taller than almost every guard or center he faces. Swim moves would lend themselves to a natural advantage for him in terms of just pure physics as he can use his tall build and long arms to reach over his opponent. Once he gets his hand on the offensive lineman’s back, Hall can handily (no pun intended) push past the offensive lineman.

That’s exactly how he attempts to execute the above pass rush. Sarting from a three-technique in the “B” gap, Hall uses the swim to move from the outside of Newman to the inside by crossing his face. Newman doesn’t fully lose to the move, but Hall is able to get just enough of an angle by leveraging Newman’s inside shoulder he can push up field. This forces Rodgers to move off of his spot in the pocket and make a quick decision to get rid of the ball for a short gain.

Building Off Of The Swim

The best pass rushers aren’t one-trick ponies. You have to be able to win in multiple ways to ascend to the upper echelons of the NFL. And it’s clear that Hall aspires to do just that. While the swim move is currently his bread and butter, he isn’t afraid to lay some jam on his toast as well. And that brings us to the final two highlights of the day for the young defender.

Once again attempting to use the swim move on Newman, the Packers guard is able to counter the attempt with a good punch. But the Bucs rookie attacked with speed as well, so while the swim didn’t allow him to get around Newman, he was able to get up field. As Hall sees Rodgers allow the pocket to wash past him, he counters with a quick and decisive spin move back to the inside. This puts him directly on top of Rodgers just after he has thrown the ball into the dirt. Hall finishes with Vea by knocking Rodgers to the ground.

Second Time’s A Charm

Hall must have seen something he liked about that last combo, because he finishes his strong day with a very similar attack for his first career sack. The lone difference between the two reps is really just directionality. On the first rep Hall throws the swim to the outside and counters inside with the spin. This time he swims inside and spins outside right into Rodgers trying to step up in the pocket to avoid outside pressure he thought he might have from Tryon-Shoyinka.

Getting Attention

In his post-game press conference, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was asked about what he saw out of the Bucs second-round rookie. ““Just what we did when we drafted him. You know, he can rush the passer, he got some pressures and he’s getting back there, the more playing time he gets and the more exposure, the more comfortable he gets.”

If Hall is able to show the same impact at the NFL level as he did in college just three games into his career, he has the potential to be an important part of a defense that has been stellar thus far. And with Hicks’ timetable to return being on the months scale, as opposed to weeks the Bucs will need Hall to continue to impact the game the way he did against Green Bay.