RENTON — Six months ago, Max Hall was one of hundreds of college football players hoping to hear his name called in the NFL draft.
He didn’t.
Instead, the quarterback from BYU signed with the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent, which meant any opportunity for playing time was probably a long, long ways off.
According to the Arizona Republic, Hall’s $320,000 salary is the lowest for an NFL quarterback. He received a $5,000 signing bonus.
But then, much faster than he or anyone else expected, Hall found himself flying up the Cardinals’ depth chart.
Quarterback Matt Leinart, the former first-round pick from USC and the presumed starter going into training camp, was released in the team’s final cuts before the start of the regular season.
Veteran Derek Anderson, who signed a free-agent deal with Arizona during the offseason, began the season as Arizona’s starter. The Cardinals, who also have rookie fifth-round draft pick John Skelton of Fordham on the roster, named Hall the backup QB.
And when Anderson struggled in the Cardinals’ fourth game of the season — a 41-10 loss to the Chargers — Arizona head coach Ken Whisenhunt replaced Anderson with Hall, who completed 8 of 14 passes for 82 yards.
The following week, in his first NFL start, Hall completed 17 of 27 passes for 168 yards with an interception as the Cardinals defeated the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints 30-20 in Phoenix.
Now, against all odds, Hall will make his second start Sunday when the Cardinals come to Seattle to battle the Seahawks for first place in the NFC West.
“If you’d have told me that two or three months ago, I’d have told you, ‘No way, you’re crazy,’” Hall said on a conference call this week. “But you know, here I am. Things have happened that have led me to this. I’ve also put in a lot of hard work and I’ve done some good things, so I’ve done enough for the coaches and players to trust me to go in there and play.”
Hall’s first start on the road at Qwest Field — one of the league’s loudest stadiums no less — will be a new challenge.
“Obviously it’s going to be loud, so you got to work on that at practice and work on your silent count, make sure you’re good with your communication, everybody’s on the same page,” Hall said. “It’s the little things. You’ve got to make sure you do all the little things right and try not to let the noise affect you too much.”
And while starting a rookie quarterback is hardly an ideal situation for any team, it was the one Whisenhunt thought gave the Cardinals the best chance to win after not getting what they wanted out of Leinart or Anderson.
During their run to consecutive division titles, the Cardinals knew they had a steady quarterback in Kurt Warner. But he retired after last season, one of several departures that led many to believe Arizona’s reign atop the division was over. But at 3-2, the Cardinals are tied with Seattle for first place, and they’ll try to stay on top with a rookie running the offense.
“I don’t know if you’re ever comfortable making a switch to a rookie,” Whisenhunt said. “But I thought that from what I’d seen of him since he first started with us, all the way back to the minicamp, just his improvement from that point moving forward.
“I think if you look at the position for the whole time, he was probably the most consistent guy through the whole period of time that we had him, up until the start of the season. … That’s what made us feel more comfortable about him being a backup going into the season because we felt like if he ever had to get in there and play, we knew we were going to have to grow with him some but felt like he would improve as things went along.”
Notes
Seahawks defensive tackle Brandon Mebane (calf) and cornerback Marcus Trufant (hamstring) sat out practice for the second straight day. Linebacker/defensive end Dexter Davis (hamstring) returned on a limited basis. Guard Chester Pitts (knee) practiced without limitation for the second straight day, a sign that he could make his debut with the Seahawks after missing the first five games.
Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was as surprised as anyone that he had a brief appearance in Wednesday night’s episode of “South Park,” a popular animated show on Comedy Central. He had no idea that he appeared on the show until receiving numerous calls and text messages when the show aired on the East coast.
“It was an honor to be on the show,” he said. “Anytime a Seahawk is on a national show, it’s an honor. … Maybe the Simpsons will call next. That would be huge.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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