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When Mike Maccagnan had his press briefing on Tuesday, literally . . .
. . . half the questions were about Christian Hackenberg.
There certainly is a media-obsession regarding this player.
Considering we don’t get to talk to the Jets’ GM very often, and there is a limited amount of time for these press conferences, why spend half of it on second-round quarterback? There are so many players to ask about in a limited time-frame.
But it happened, and I want to get into a little bit of the byplay.
Q)Is Christian Hackenberg not ready to play?
Maccagnan: No, I don’t necessarily think that. I think, really, when you look at our season, obviously Josh (McCown) came in and I think Josh did a very good job for us and played very well. I think Bryce earned the number two position in preseason, and, of course, Christian was the number three position and Todd felt – I think Todd has commented on this already – he played the players that he felt he needed to play in that time.
Jets Confidential: The Jets handling of this situation is an odd.
First of all, why is Todd so married to a summer depth chart? And it’s not like Petty lit it up this summer. He had one good half in a preseason game.
Why did Petty “need to play?” Or let me rephrase that – Why did Petty need to play every second of the rest of the season after McCown last year?
Petty played last year and it became pretty apparent late this season, that nothing had really changed with the player. Very hard worker who struggles with accuracy and pocket presence. So make a sight adjustment, perhaps after a couple of start, and get Hackenberg some action.
Q)Was Hackenberg drafted too early?
Maccagnan: I think the book on Christian is not closed. He is only 22-years old. He has made progress, he’s made development. This is going to be a good offseason for him. We’re excited to see how he does with his second year in this system, and he’s going to have an opportunity in training camp to go out and play again. So we’ll see how he develops going forward.
Jets Confidential: We agree that the book isn’t closed on Hackenberg. He’s only 22-years old, and hasn’t played yet. While we’re not necessarily comparing him to these players, but Jimmy Garoppolo sat four years in New England. Aaron Rodgers sat three years in Green Bay.
As far as him “making progress” I’m not sure you can discern that until he plays in real games. Because as I’ve mentioned many times, NFL practices are like a different sport compared to games. It’s touch football, it’s flag football it’s not tackle football. Totally different game.
Q)Will Hackenberg be on the Jets’ next season?
Maccagnan: I know this is always a question everybody wants to ask about players, like, ‘Hey, is this person going to be on the team?’ We have a whole offseason to go through, and not just with him or any particular player at a certain position, but I’m not going to sit here and speculate on who is going to be on or off the team going forward.
Jets Confidential: That was a silly question – a trap question. How the heck can Maccagnan answer that now?
But I will say this – the politics need to end right now. For two years he was carried no matter what he did in off-season practices, the preseason and in-season practices.
From this point on, it needs to be a meritocracy with Hackenberg. He needs to earn his place on the roster in 2018. No more “favored-nation status.”
January 4, 2017
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