Garrett Wilson deservedly won offensive rookie of the year for his first-year campaign with the Jets in 2022, but up until the week seven matchup against Denver, the betting favorite to win the award was another Jet.

To that point, Breece Hall had racked up 463 yards on 80 rushing attempts (a 5.8 average per rush) and looked like he could score on any given play. The Jets had a work horse running back to go with the slasher they already had in Michael Carter. A torn ACL but the star rookie on the shelf for the rest of 2022.

It’s no coincidence that the Jets were rolling at 5-2 and looked like a playoff team before Hall’s injury and finished the year 7-10 on the outside looking in. That is not to say that QB play had nothing to do with the team’s nosedive in the second half of the season, but Hall’s presence on the offense was certainly missed.

Now all reports out of Jets camp are that Breece Hall looks like he is close to all the way back from his ACL injury but looks can be deceiving. Running backs have struggled to return to their form following an ACL injury. On average returning after an ACL injury is nine to 12 months. If Hall is active for the Jets season opener, he would have played 10 months following his injury.

According to Jets coach Robert Saleh, Hall measured at over 22 miles per hour on their GPS, a tool that tracks a player’s speed from inside their helmet. Hall’s speed before the injury was believed to be about 22-23 miles per hour.

Hall himself feels like he is on track to returning quickly. “It’s going good, it’s good to get back on the field, running around doing drills, starting to cut and stuff,” Hall said. “I feel like myself again, just progressing every week. 

The team should be very optimistic about Hall’s return, but it should be more of cautious optimism. 

“He’s one of those kids that we’ve had to kind of hold back from him because there’s a process,” Saleh said. “It’s weird to say it, you don’t want to heal too fast in an ACL. You’ve got to be able to balance it out with the strength. He looks strong, he looks powerful, he’s learning. I mean, I’m excited for him to get back on the field. I feel like he won’t need to be limited during training camp, even though we still will, just to be conscientious and cautious with him, but he looks awesome. “

The Jets have big plans to make a deep playoff run this season, and the fact is that they will need Breece Hall in order to make that happen. It doesn’t benefit the team to rush him back only to see him aggravate the injury and suffer a setback or fade down the home stretch.

The NFL has plenty of examples of running backs who had ACL injuries and then struggled to find their form. Sequan Barkley, Dalvin Cook and Jamal Charles. Of course, there are outliers like Adrian Peterson who won the MVP the year he returned from an ACL injury.

It would be surprising to see Hall return to his 2022 pre-injury form early in the 2023 season if at all this year. It’s just not an injury that allows players to return so quickly. That being said, everyone heals differently and maybe Breece will come back better than expected but for now the Jets need to be cautious with their young back.

Featured Image via Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK