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Morris County – So let’s get this straight.
We just watched a green Bryce Petty for the last month struggle because he wasn’t ready, so now the same people who called for that, are saying Christian Hackenberg should start the last game.
It’s illogical.
Hackenberg was behind Petty, not only on the depth chart, but in terms of his maturation process.
Petty was in Year Two of his development, and Hackenberg is in Year One.
What the heck are you going to see in one game? To me, it can only do damage – an unprepared 22-year-old rookie (came out after his junior year) playing behind an offensive line with four starters out, against an attacking defense. He could take a beating, have a tough outing, and have to think about the whole off-season.
Dumb.
And remember, he took a terrible beating his last two years at Penn State behind bad lines (in part due to scholarship sanctions). What a brilliant idea, put him behind a line with four starters out in Week 17? Have him take another beating.
In Todd Bowles press conference today, the Hackenberg questions wouldn’t stop. It was mind-numbing.
By the way, I eventually jumped in with some questions about other topics like what happened to Khiry Robinson in New England.
Bowles said he broke his leg again (for the third time).
Why was it necessary to bring back a veteran running back, coming off a broken leg, and play him in Week 16? I don’t get this one at all.
But back to Hackenberg, I think there is some big-time pandering going on by certain writers. They lobbied for Petty to play sooner than Todd put him in there. Bowles was getting ripped for waiting. It turns it he was ripped for waiting to put a guy in who was way over his head at this point. Now they are lobbying for another green QB to go in who isn’t ready.
To me, this is just pandering to the peanut gallery. Many fans (not all) have been calling for Hackenberg on twitter and sports talk show, so to get clicks, which is so important these days, writer’s just pander. It’s sad what this industry has turned into.
Starting Ryan Fitzpatrick this week is the right thing to do.
After two embarrassing losses in a row, the Jets need to go win a game to go into the off-season feeling somewhat good about themselves. The building is very down right now.
Enough of this NFL Europe stuff. Go win a game.
And here is the thing most people don’t realize about this theory that you need to see what the young quarterback (fill in the blank) can do – it actually hurts the development of your other young players.
Because when the quarterback doesn’t know what he’s doing, it messes up the development of other young players on offense, because they are getting lousy reps in a dysfunction, often non-functioning offense. So the young offensive lineman who are playing, or the young receivers playing, are spinning their wheels out there because they aren’t getting the direction of quarterback of who knows what he’s doing, in the huddle, on the line presnap and then after the snap. I was a little long-winded there, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
It’s kind of analogous to a basketball team without a point guard. It drags everyone else down.
And I’m not saying Todd Bowles and/or Mike Maccagnan are on the hot seat. Anybody writing that is totally guessing. Nobody knows what Woody Johnson is thinking, aside from maybe Ira and his wife. But going out with a positive showing against Buffalo in the season finale, perhaps getting a “W,” will be good for Todd/Mike/Woody/the young players, the building and so forth.
And Fitzpatrick, even with his warts, gives them a much better chance of doing than Hackenberg.
December 27, 2016
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