Matt Calkins: Seahawks' Derick Hall makes splashy 'Hard Knocks' debut on HBO

Matt Calkins, The Seattle Times on Aug 7, 2026

Published in Football

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SEATTLE — It's a 2020 Dodge Ram 2500, if you're wondering. And those aren't hydraulics he installed — it's an air-suspension system called air ride.

The cost to get it to where it is now versus when he bought it off the lot is upward of $70,000. For Seahawks outside linebacker Derick Hall? Worth every penny.

The first Hard Knocks" episode featuring the Seahawks aired on HBO Tuesday, and Hall was among the more prominently featured players. The 25-year-old is fresh off a three-year, $42 million contract he signed in June, and he put a decent chunk of that money toward a vehicle made for grand entrances.

Hall's "Hard Knocks" introduction showed him exiting his lifted — and I do mean lifted — white pickup truck that required him to jump down from the driver's seat. Fitting that he spends so much time in that elevated beast. These days, Hall is living the high life.

You're never exactly sure what you're going to get out of a second-round pick. Sometimes you get an All-Pro, sometimes you get a steady contributor, sometimes you get a dud you wished you passed on.

So far, Hall has established himself as the second of those three options, and the Seahawks sure have benefited. Perhaps his most notable performance came in Seattle's Super Bowl win last February, when Hall logged two sacks — one of which caused a fumble that led to a Seahawks touchdown — and two tackles for a loss.

In other words, Hall isn't new to the spotlight — it's shining with a different level of voltage on HBO.

In addition to his parking-lot entrance, "Hard Knocks" showed Derick getting into a playful wrestling match with "Dark Side" teammate Leonard Williams. In a less innocent moment, Hall was seen slamming guard Bryce Cabeldue to the ground after a fight broke out.

This is training camp, where brawls tend to happen, but Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald still seemed disappointed with Hall's action. Nevertheless, all seems well with the defending Super Bowl champs, who were portrayed positively in the premiere.

"I loved it. I think it’s authentic. I think it shows who we are as a unit, as a team," Hall said when asked what he thought about the show. "Things happen out here on the football field, obviously, as you saw in the episode, and I’m sure a lot of people know. Things get out of control sometimes, but at the end of the day, we love each other here. We are (a) team, we are a brotherhood. And at the end of the day, if it happens out here, we go in the locker room, we hug it out, you know, ‘Hey man, I apologize. You know, that was beyond the line of where we’re trying to go and what we’re trying to get,’ and we move forward. I think that’s what we do really well here, and I think that’s a part to our advantage."

What else do we know about Hall? Well, he likes to wear short shorts. He said he started wearing them while at Auburn because it got hot during practice — but hasn’t been able to convince any of his Seahawks teammates to follow suit.

We know he wants to go spearfishing with Williams, but the Big Cat hasn’t invited him yet.

“He won’t take me. I have asked for two offseason now, ‘Leo, take me spear fishing’,” Hall said. “Make sure you put that out there. ‘Tell Leo next offseason to take D-Hall spear fishing.”

And we know he loves his trucks. Sometimes he’ll lean his Ram toward another car at a stoplight just to get a reaction. Sometimes he’ll go straight to the auto shop after practice to unwind and hang with fellow gear heads.

How important is having other hobbies? Hall was asked Wednesday.

“I think that's huge, especially when you have the offseason and that break," Hall said. "I'm a guy that doesn’t like to sit around. I like to keep moving. I'm always moving. My mom tells me, ‘You need to sit down somewhere sometime,’ and I'm not trying to hear that."

Well, there certainly isn't a lot of time for sitting down right now. The Seahawks have begun their quest to repeat as Super Bowl champs, and though Hall might not be one of the more well-known members of that defensive "Dark Side, he's still prominent feature. His skills against the run are particularly valuable.

So … new contract, new player? We'll see. Like his ride, Hall would like to see his game rise to a new level.