The New York Jets made many of us spit out our preferred beverage in shock when they selected quarterback Christian Hackenberg in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft (No. 51 overall).
After all, he was not exactly a gem during his college days at Penn State, where his accuracy issues were, shall we say, pronounced?
We here at Sportsnaut took the stance that he’d be doomed to fail with Gang Green — a franchise that has real trouble developing quarterbacks.
Indeed, that sentiment was not diminished when reports came out of offseason practices that the young passer was struggling during OTAs (more on that here).
Therefore it’s not shocking whatsoever to hear he’s been “brutally bad” during training camp.
https://twitter.com/LedyardNFLDraft/status/762702453020045312
Right now, Hackenberg is sitting at No. 4 on New York’s depth chart behind Ryan Fitzpatrick, Geno Smith and Bryce Petty, who is not himself developing into a good NFL-caliber quarterback.
Daryl Slater of NJ.com revealed Monday morning that the Jets are barely letting Hackenberg receive any reps at all during training camp, likely as a result of his poor play during the chances he’s gotten to this point.
Things can obviously change over the course of the next few years. But right now? It’s looking like Hackenberg will be one more in a long line of terrible quarterbacks the Jets have brought on board. It was a huge mistake for New York to have drafted him in Round 2, and it may end up being one the franchise regrets for a while.