Virginia’s Hall, Perkins reveal a few NFL teams they’d like to play for

By Scott Ratcliffe

Like every kid that played football growing up, Virginia’s Bryce Hall and Bryce Perkins have both long dreamed of suiting up for a game in the National Football League.

Hall is a 6-foot-1, 202-pound defensive back that is projected to be taken as highly as the first few rounds of next month’s highly anticipated NFL Draft. The guys at NFL.com have him projected to start within his first two years in the league.

Hall grew up mostly in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but had an early love affair with another team halfway across the country.

“When I was 11 months old, I moved to Kansas City, so I used to go to the Kansas City Chiefs games as a little kid,” Hall told reporters Tuesday, when asked if he had a favorite team that he’d love to be chosen by. “But then, when I moved to Pennsylvania in fourth grade, I stopped getting their games. So I kind of fell off from being a Chiefs fan, [but] that was my childhood dream team, or team that I’d love to play for.”

Hall then shifted to what kind of franchise he hopes to play for when his name is called in a few weeks.

“If I could choose any team in the NFL to play for, I would love to play for a team like the Ravens or like, the Steelers, or the Patriots — somewhere where they’re known for having a good defense, and just a good organization. I want to go somewhere where, it’s like, we’re competing for championships, but also the organization, the system is really good and I’d be able to thrive in those systems.”

Hall, who led the country in pass breakups with 22 as a junior, was just as quick to admit, however, that he wouldn’t mind being part of something similar to helping turn the Cavaliers’ program around in his four years in Charlottesville.

“But at the same time, it’d be cool if I went somewhere where we just build it up like we did here at UVA.”

For Perkins, he’s been around the league his whole life, and now he gets his chance to prove that he belongs on a roster this fall. His father, Bruce, was a running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Indianapolis Colts; his great uncle, Don, was a running back for the Dallas Cowboys and is a member of their Ring of Honor; his brother, Paul, played running back for the New York Giants and is currently a free agent.

So what team would Bryce Perkins want to play for on Sundays?

“Oh man, as a kid I was a big Chargers fan, grew up watching L.T. [LaDainian Tomlinson],” said the quarterback, who added that his room was always filled with Chargers memorabilia growing up. “Transitioning to now, man it’s crazy. I think the organization, just speaking about great organizations, it’s hard to say which team I’d play for just because there’s quite a few of them that I’d like to play for.”

Perkins agrees that former Louisville star Lamar Jackson’s NFL MVP season in 2019 should help front offices realize that mobile, dual-threat quarterbacks can help a team go from mid-level to contender in a short amount of time.

He also saw how New Orleans’ Taysom Hill, a former Bronco Mendenhall quarterback from Brigham Young, had a successful, important role as somewhat of a Wildcat-type guy during the Saints’ playoff run, and added that in the right situation, he’d be open to playing a position other than QB.

Getting back to the question at hand, Perkins listed a few squads that would be dream-worthy to sign with, although it may upset a few fans of a certain team in our nation’s capital.

“[Dallas] is definitely a great organization, the Ravens,” said Perkins, “just speaking about the team, and not just speaking about anybody that’s there, you know, who I’d love to play for. And definitely for the Chargers, just because I grew up watching them and having family in San Diego, it would be cool to kind of go back west and play with some of the guys.”