Former Falcon Hall makes questionable landing in Oakland

So, Atlanta Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall wanted out of the Dirty South and wished management to ship him off to a team suited with a "win now" mindframe--and the front office deals him to another dysfunctional franchise in the Oakland Raiders for a second-round pick.

Hall is expected to make just a little under then what Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel signed on for ($57 million), so financially this deal was a great move. But, speaking strictly in football terms, I'd say this is a lose-lose situation for both sides.

The former Virginia Tech Hokie was the No. 8 overall pick in 2004 and has made two Pro Bowl appearances since being drafted (2005, 2006)--however, Hall's given up more big plays than he's made, as ESPN's KC Joyner points out in his columns.

Here's Joyner's thoughts on Hall in his article "The truth on the corner":

DeAngelo HallThis is the second consecutive season Hall makes this list. He receives this honor because he once again made the Pro Bowl, despite posting simply abysmal metrics. His 9.2 YPA ranked 76th among cornerbacks. Hall's 47.1 success percentage was solid (31st in the league), but his 17.9 missed pass percentage was one of the highest in the league. That means a large percentage of Hall's success was due to luck. His supporters would point out that many of the big plays he allowed were due in part to not getting good help from the Falcons' safeties. That might be the case, but Hall's overall YPA was still only .8 yards better than Jason Webster's figure. Furthermore, Woodson had just as little help from the Packers' mediocre safeties and still put up great metrics.

Here's another revelation on Hall's play from Joyner in his article "Hall, Gamble don't deserve hype":

Overrated

1. DeAngelo Hall, Atlanta Falcons -- John Madden knighted Hall as a great cornerback after Hall had a fairly good game against Terrell Owens in the "Monday Night Football" 2005 season opener. Since then, the hype machine has been going full bore and he is now seen as one of the best corners in the NFL. The thing I don't understand is how Hall's reputation keeps surviving after each Sunday's highlight reels. Hall has given up a 40-plus yard pass play in four of his last eight games and three of these have been 60 or more yards. This is the primary reason he is allowing nearly 11 yards per attempt. How anyone can call him a shutdown corner this year is simply beyond me.

Considering all these factors, Hall is an upgrade from Stanford Routt, but I'm not too sure if he'll make that much more of a difference than Fabian Washington--both have awesome speed, but both also seem to give up too many big plays (take a look at what Chad Johnson did to him). If they wanted to go a different route (get it), the Silver-and-Black could have used that second-round pick on a cornerback with first-round talent because at least one of the top-5 ranked corners will slip.


DeAngelo Hall image found at http://ballsiest.com/sportsblog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/deangelo-hall.jpg