Last week the Philadelphia Eagles traded iDL Thomas Booker to the Las Vegas Raiders for CB Jakorian Bennett. The move signaled concern about the Eagles’ corners, but also perhaps some confidence in their young interior defensive linemen, namely Gabe Hall, who has had a good start to camp. 

I was curious to watch Hall’s snaps against the Cincinnati Bengals in the Eagles’ first preseason game to see if his performance in the game matched what we have been seeing from him in practice.

But first, who is Gabe Hall? 

The Eagles signed Hall as an undrafted rookie out of Baylor following the 2024 draft. He has talent. In the 2024 draft, both Dane Brugler of The Athletic and Lance Zierlein of NFL Network had fourth-round grades on him, but he didn’t get drafted because he had some unspecified injuries. He was a standout during Senior Bowl practices in 2024. Push-pull move here:

Swim move here:

He is a tall, lean defensive tackle at 6’6, 295, with an 84″ wingspan.

He missed time during his rookie season training camp with a hamstring injury, and didn’t show much when he was able to practice. He did manage to stick on the practice squad for the entirety of the season. Vic Fangio remarked during one of his press conferences that Hall is something of a poster child for what the practice squad should be.

“The practice squad is made for a guy like Gabe,” Fangio said. “He’s got some ability. He was coming off an injury in college. It was really good for him to be here, practice, be a part of it without the stress of having to play in the game.

“I think he just kept getting more confident coming off the injury in college. He needed some confidence in that regard. He needed to get stronger, needed to adjust playing against men, not college players. It was a great learning experience for him.”

Hall played a lot of snaps in the first preseason game. I watched all of them. I won’t pretend like he was a one-man wrecking crew for four quarters, but there were flashes, notably against the Bengals’ starters.

This was Hall’s best pass rushing rep of the game, against starting RG Lucas Patrick. Nice swim, instant pressure on Joe Burrow:

Here’s another swim, again against the Bengals’ starters, this time on a run play.

Here he two-gaps the center, gets in on a tackle on a run play: 

Nothing special here — he’s not going to remind anyone of Von Miller in his prime — but he’s rushing from the edge and doesn’t look totally out of place.

Here he just kind of feels his way through the O-line on a weird play and helps force a throwaway.

And finally, he gets pressure (and held) on an ugly Bengals screen play that is intercepted by Patrick Johnson.

Again, those are the highlights. If Hall is going to be a consistent part of the interior line rotation, he’ll need to be more consistent, but the flashes are very likely to earn him a spot on the 53.

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