Hall spoke about the New York Jets’ Week 1 tilt against Purdy’s 49ers
When the New York Jets face the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1 of the 2024 season, there will be three Iowa State players on the field: Will McDonald plus two opponents who were college roommates.
Breece Hall, drafted with the 38th pick in the 2022 NFL draft, will go up against Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant in the same draft. Both players have impressive NFL resumés thus far, and both are chasing a championship.
As warmly as Hall may feel toward Purdy, he has his game face on until after the matchup.
.@BreeceH and @brockpurdy13: confirmed enemies until September 10 😂 pic.twitter.com/R9gaSXZ8N1
— New York Jets (@nyjets) June 17, 2024
When asked whether he had talked to Purdy, Hall grinned. “No, not yet. Me and him are actually overly competitive with each other,” he responded. “When we played Madden, whoever won, we wouldn’t talk to each other for the rest of the day. That’s how it’s gonna be until after the game.”
Hall has another connection to the 49ers: his cousin is former San Francisco running back Roger Craig. Craig was the first player ever to have 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in the same season. Additionally, the Jets back admitted that he’s watched countless YouTube highlights of Christian McCaffrey, the 49ers back widely considered the best in the NFL.
While Purdy will naturally play a prominent role in the Week 1 matchup, Hall will be nearly as important. The 49ers had strong raw run defense numbers in 2023, but they didn’t face too much running due to racking up big leads. They ranked 15th in run defense DVOA, demonstrating a potential hole in the defense. Replacing Arik Armstead (59.6 Pro Football Focus run defense grade) with Maliek Collins (45.6) could further soften the middle of the 49ers’ defense.
Hall and Purdy are looking forward to the matchup in fully professional mode. In one of three games all season in which the Jets are underdogs, Hall will need to play a key role for the Jets to pull off the upset.
