The Jets have signed Bryce Hall, their fifth-round pick selected No. 158 overall out of Virginia.

Hall, who only played in 6 games last season before suffering a season-ending ankle injury, totaled 20 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack and 4 pass defenses in 2019. The 6'1", 202-pounder led the nation with 24 PDs in 2018 and was named second-team All-American and first-team All-ACC. He also had 62 tackles, and 2 INTs in '18.

"I'm somebody who first and foremost prepares like crazy," he said. "I'm somebody who brings a lot of energy, a lot of passion, somebody who's very meticulous in their preparation. Just because I don't have the skillset at the moment, I'm very determined to learn and grow. Every day I'm hungry to learn, hungry to just get better. For me as a player, it depends on what they want me to do wherever it is that they have me. To the best of my ability, I'm going to adapt my game to whatever fits best for them."

He added regarding his health: "Basically right now, my ankle is healed. It's just about getting it back to the same range of motion and just explosiveness as my other ankle. I'm getting better and stronger every week."

A former high school receiver at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg, PA, Hall played in 44 games (39 starts) at Virginia and totaled 154 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, 3 forced fumbles, 44 PDs and 5 INTs. He was also named a team captain last season.

"It's unfortunate about the injury that derailed his season in October, but when we're talking about Bryce, he's a guy that has unique size, length and ball skills," GM Joe Douglas said. "Here's a young man that can really play the ball when he's in engaged and find it. That's an important attribute to have when you're playing in Gregg's [Williams] defense and with [DBs coach] Dennard [Wilson], we feel like we have a great coaching staff to really develop this young player. I know he's excited to get here, get rolling and prove to the rest of the league that he should've been drafted higher."

Hall is the 11th Virginia player the Jets have selected all-time. The three most recent Cavaliers were all O-linemen: G Doug Karczewski in 1998 (Round 5), T D'Brickahsaw Ferguson in 2004 (Round 1, No. 4 overall) and T Oday Aboushi in 2013 (Round 5). Their last DB out of UVa was Lester Lyles in the second round of the '89 draft.