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I’m just going to be blunt here. None of these words mean anything at this stage of game. It is only going to mean something when the real bullets start flying.
I’m talking about some of the things Christian Hackenberg had to say on Monday.
“Without a doubt, I think there’s a different level of confidence,” Hackenberg said, “but I think that also goes back to Year 2 – more comfortable in the situation, more comfortable walking in the building, more comfortable with the guys in the locker room, in the huddle. I think just that natural growth from, I wouldn’t even say confidence, but just the comfort standpoint of walking in there and doing things.”
Perhaps, but honestly, when it comes to the NFL QB position, who good look or feel in the spring and summer, means very little
QB work in the off-season, and I include training camp practices in this equation also, mean very little.
For instance, new Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said about Blake Bortles over the weekend – “He’s improved — there’s no doubt about it.”
I’m sorry, I know Marrone is just trying to be positive about his beleaguered quarterback, but there is no way to know in May if a quarterback has improved. No way.
The last two off-seasons, Bortles worked with throwing guru Tom House, and there was all this talk about how much he improved, but once the real football started, he really hadn’t improved.
You see, when these guys work with QB gurus, or they practice in the spring and summer, there are no sacks, no tackling of the quarterback. Nobodies trying to take your head off, like real football. You can’t touch quarterbacks in the spring and summer. And when they work with gurus, there is no real defense on the field.
What happens in most cases, is once the real football starts, with opposing defenders coming at you, along with complex opposing defenses to dissect, so often the muscle-memory of quarterbacks resorts back to the old bad habits. I hate to be negative, but this is generally what happens.
Hackenberg is working with QB coach Jordan Palmer this off-season when he’s not with the Jets. Like I said, most of the time these sessions make little difference, like when Colin Kaepernick worked with Kurt Warner in the 2015 off-season. How’d that work out? It made little or no difference.
And Hackenberg talking about how he’s more comfortable. Perhaps, but like I’ve mentioned ad infinitum, he’s learning a new playbook, so he comfortable can he really be right now?
Look, I’m not writing off Hackenberg. Not at all. We are talking a guy who was a 21-year-old rookie last year. He is very, very young.
But I’m of the opinion he needs to sit another year, or at least a chunk of this season, until the Jets are out of the race.
He needs more time.
He needs time to get comfortable in the new system, and all the mechanics he’s being taught by Jeremy Bates and John Morton.
The last thing he needs is to start at the beginning of the Jets season, and the team gets off to a bad start, and people blame him.
That will shatter him.
And don’t believe any of the happy talk about QB improvement in the off-season.
They aren’t playing real football.
May 16, 2017
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