As an undrafted free agent rookie, Emanuel Hall was already facing an up-hill battle in the race to earn a spot among the receivers on the Chicago Bears’ season-opening 53-man roster.
That challenge is a bit more difficult now:
Emanuel Hall had a similar procedure to what Trey Burton underwent, Matt Nagy said. He’s expected to be ready for training camp, but surely disappointing for a guy who had a lot of injury issues at Missouri.
— JJ Stankevitz (@JJStankevitz) June 5, 2019
Head Coach Matt Nagy revealed Hall had to undergo a surgical procedure the will knock him out for the rest of OTAs and mini-camps. The surgery is similar to the one Trey Burton received, which also kept him out of spring-time OTA practices. And just like Burton, the expectation is that Hall will be back for training camp. If that happens to be the case and Hall is fully recovered, it would still make him a prospect to watch this summer as he aims to land a spot on the season-opening roster.
Hall was one of the more high-profile undrafted rookies agents the Bears were able to snag after the draft. Football pundits saw Hall as someone with a skill-set that fit a player who should have been picked in the first or second round, but attitude, makeup, and motivation concerns were enough to drop him from a projected middle-round pick to not being drafted at all. Despite the negatives, the Bears rolled the dice with Hall and added him as part of a post-draft haul that earned an A-plus grade from SB Nation’s Dan Kadar.
Even if Hall was healthy, cracking the Week 1 roster from the wide receiver position group was never going to be an easy task. Because in addition to Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, and Cordarrelle Patterson at the top, Hall would have to beat out the likes of Javon Wims, Riley Ridley, and Marvin Hall in order to to make it. Hall certainly has the talent to bring big-play sparks to an offense, but this injury isn’t going to help his case.