2023 NFL Mock Draft: Auburn football fans will appreciate where Derick Hall is being projected to land

After watching Auburn football get worse every season he was on the Plains, Derick Hall is projected to land with an NFL franchise in ESPN analyst Todd McShay’s 2023 NFL mock draft that should make Tiger fans happy for the six-foot-three, 251-pound EDGE rusher.

With the 31st pick of the 2023 NFL draft, McShay has the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs — who defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 after falling down by 10 at halftime — adding Hall to a middling KC defense that ceded 3,756 all-purpose yards in 2022.

Because of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’ involvement in “tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” Miami will lose their first-round pick in 2023, as well as a third-round pick in the 2024 draft. That’d make Hall the final pick in the draft.

Former Auburn football EDGE Derick Hall has met with the Chiefs

The idea of the Chiefs picking Hall is not far-fetched at all, with Kansas City having already met with the former Auburn football star at the 2023 NFL Draft Combine in Indianapolis during the final week of February.

Hall had great things to say about Chiefs coach Andy Reid and the organization. “I loved sitting down with Andy Reid and the guys in that room, really just showing what I can do,” he said. “I loved every second of it, showing what I could do, and they enjoyed it as well.”

Hall playing for one of the most exalted teams by the NFL media would lead to more national games for Tiger fans to catch him playing. Joining the defense of Steve Spagnuolo — assuming the Chiefs defensive coordinator doesn’t get a new head coach job — would have Hall learning from a ace defensive mind who’s been with Kansas City for three Super Bowl appearances in the last four seasons.

There’s a lot to love about McShay’s latest mock draft. Let’s hope Hall going to the Chiefs is manifested in reality.