Christian Hackenberg, who attended Penn State and was drafted by the Jets in the second round in 2016, has bad memories of his time in New York.
Hackenberg, who has never taken a snap in an NFL regular-season game, opened up this week about his bad experience in New York and why Gang Green just wasn’t a good fit for him.
“New York was probably the last place I should have gone, given the market, the expectations, the situation.” Hackenberg is the host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast.On Wednesday, he left the team, saying, “My rookie year, we ended up with four quarterbacks, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for me to develop. It was an organization with no structure and a lot of ups and downs.”
“And I think the timing and where it ended up was unexpected for me in that position.”
Hackenberg was highly touted throughout his high school career, being ranked the No. 1 overall quarterback in the class of 2013, according to ESPN.
He was drafted by the Jets in the second round after three seasons at Penn State, where he threw for 8,457 yards and 48 touchdowns.
However, Hackenberg only played two seasons with the Jets, who had a string of quarterback changes under head coach Todd Bowles.
While Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bryce Petty, Geno Smith and Josh McCown all got playing time in 2016-17, Hackenberg never appeared in a significant game for the Jets.
Following his second season with the Jets, Hackenberg was traded to the Raiders in May 2018 for a conditional seventh-round pick.
The once highly-anticipated prospect only played three weeks with the Raiders, spending the year with the Eagles and Bengals.
Hackenberg said he continued to “fight” in the face of all expectations.
“There’s a lot of context involved, and when I went into the draft I knew I still had a lot of things I needed to improve on,” Hackenberg said of his draft selection, “but at the same time, I also had all the expectations and public reputation that this kid was going to be good.
“What I had to deal with was really kind of a battle, both internally and externally, about messaging and how things were portrayed.”
Boasting a fastball that tops 90 mph, Hackenberg attempted to resume his baseball career in 2020 after his NFL career faded, but quickly gave up on that dream.
