In 2016, scouts were enamored with Christian Hackenberg‘s size and arm strength. The Jets’ second-round pick didn’t pan out in the NFL, so he says he’s moving on to baseball as a pitcher (Twitter link via John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia).
[RELATED: Jamal Adams Frustrated With Jets]
“I just want to compete, man,” Hackenberg said. “I’ve kind of had my trials and tribulations with the NFL, and had success and had that roller-coaster ride. At the end of the day, I’m sitting here at 25…I feel like I’ve got a lot left in the tank.”
Hackenberg left Penn State as their all-time leader in passing yards (8,457) and touchdowns (48) in just three years on campus. He completed just 53.5% of his throws in his final season, but that didn’t deter Jets GM Mike Maccagnan, who reached for him at No. 51 overall.
Hackenberg never saw the field in his two seasons with the Jets, who traded him to the Raiders. The QB lasted less than a month with the Raiders; ditto for his time with the Eagles, which amounted to a cup of coffee. His last NFL stop was a practice squad run with the Bengals, who dropped him in November of 2018. Hackenberg’s career ended without attempting a live action throw.
Hackenberg, a relief pitcher in high school, throws a 90-mph fastball, according to agent Noel LaMontagne (via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com). In a limited sample size, Hackenberg struggled with accuracy on the diamond, just as he did on the gridiron. Pitching in relief, the 6’4″ athlete posted a 7.36 ERA with 40 walks and five HBPs in 25 2/3 innings.
Hackenberg served as the starting quarterback of the AAF’s Memphis Express last year, up until the league dissolved.
Old news
….when professional sports just isn’t in your future.
Well the XFL went under so
Odd choice for a guy so bad at throwing things…
Tim tebow Jr. I hope they succed
now this should be neat
Now this is pod racing
Super under rated comment here. Well done
Thankyou for that
He’s only 25. Give it a shot and see what happens!
Tebow 2.0?
He got drafted into a shytshow with the Jets and was never probably never properly groomed. A 2nd round pick thrown in a crowded QB room and a poorly run organization didn’t help.
7.36 ERA in high school and hardly played baseball since? Not sure what the thought is here but good luck to him.
And this isn’t the time to try and make it work with seasons in question and the minor league scaling back. He won’t get that coaching he needs to harness a live arm.
There is such a thing as places like Driveline.
Guy obviously feels the need to compete and/or is an attention w***e. Dude should look into pro wrestling cuz a 90 mph fastball with no command is not the ticket to the majors.
A comment section full of Motivational speakers. I hope none of you work for a suicide prevention hotline.
That’s the best comment I’ve read in quite sometime.
As a person who has struggled with depression, I can really enjoy this laugh about the subject. I’m just kidding. I never laugh. But if I do, it’s fake anyway.
Anyway some scouts clearly liked him. And anytime a team invests that much time and money into a player, they always seem to give at least a few snaps just to make sure of what they have. For GMs, scouts, etc., few things are worse than grooming an expensive player and getting nothing out of it. When that player succeeds elsewhere, it’s even worse. It’s not often you see such an early pick not even get a chance. But why pick on the guy? He had no control over when he would be drafted. What if it had been the 5th round? Then again it wouldn’t be a story in the first place.
Who’s the bigger bust: Hackenberg or Paxton Lynch? Both were overdrafted by at least a round and couldn’t even sniff three consecutive seasons with their original teams. Lynch is probably more disappointing, given that he was a first rounder and more was expected of him. On the other hand, Hackenberg didn’t even see the field, which says something about his performance in practice
Lynch at least saw game time. He actually wasn’t bad from an individual statistical perspective; not great but in single game sample sizes not historically bad. Over his career, yes, definitely a disappointment. The disappointment with him was his inability to consistently handle playing under center, not surprising considering his entire college career saw him do that zero times. Generally QBs who don’t work under center can’t adapt to pro football-which is why I’m slightly concerned about Herbert, but he is working pretty hard on that if reports are to believe.
The Broncos also haven’t demonstrated the ability to develop a QB, possibly not since the ‘70s (not counting Elway, who was already considered a pro ready QB, their best QBs have been free agent acquisitions). Basically, it was going to take a lot to develop a project like Lynch into an NFL level QB, and the Broncos did not have the coaching nor the help on offense to do that. Lynch ended up getting hurt anyway so the point is moot.
I still think that they should have run with him instead of releasing him in the final year of his deal to see if he could develop-and, if not, they were likely to draft a QB anyway. Game time was what he needed-which, again, is not guaranteed to produce results, but is moreso than practice with second stringers. If it didn’t work, they’d be in a position to draft someone high. Instead they signed Keenum, and then Flacco, neither of whom worked out long term.
Also, did Lynch not get cut in his fourth year? Meaning he had three seasons in Denver?
Believe it or not, he actually got cut right before the 2018 regular season before jumping to Seattle. It did seem rather premature to give up on him so quickly. Lynch and Herbert do seem rather similar in makeup. I’m not sure if Lynch’s lack of development can be attributed to Denver’s coaching staff. Lock at least looks competent and even in the past, Cutler seemed to be on the right path in his first couple of seasons. Besides, Lynch had the opportunity to take over for the mediocre duo of Duck and Rudolph to no avail.
I still don’t know what to think of Hackenberg. He shouldn’t have been drafted anywhere near the second round and this is coming from a Penn State fan. It’s troubling he couldn’t even surpass the likes of Bryce Petty on the depth chart, but the coaching staff never exactly gave him a fair shot
Good points. That said, Lock may be the first to break the trend. Some players are just better equipped than others. Also the environment has improved immensely (veteran leader for Lock to initially sit behind as a rookie in Flacco, better coaching, better line play, and a more settled organization overall). Also, he has yet to play a full year. I think he’ll end up better than Cutler, however, who was okay but not spectacular in Denver. With a much improved O-line and young talent at WR and TE, Lock looks to have a good chance to develop further, which is good for the Broncos.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Lynch would have been great anywhere but Denver. I think he in reality was closer to a fifth round project due to his physical talent. Players like that need top level elite coaching plus luck to have a chance at being starters in the league. Was Lynch that guy? Likely not, and current evidence does not really show that he may have been. But I also think that he did not get much of a chance. Watching him in games he seemed extremely uncertain and was withdrawn during the season. His confidence was shot by his final year-or at least appeared to be in my view. When that happens, it eliminates any chance the player may have had. His lack of experience in a pro offense essentially meant that he was years behind where he should have been as a first rounder.
Still, he ended up better than Hackenberg. Denver held out hope that Lynch could have been their starter for a while, and he received play time before being injured. Lynch even almost beat the Chiefs and Mahomes in their second years playing, if I recall. So in that regard, his career was certainly better than Mahomes’. Unlike Hackenberg, who never seemed to lack for confidence, Lynch seemed to lose his self-confidence in the pros and that killed his development further. I would be curious to see what he may have been had he gone to a more stable organization at the time, not one that was on the verge of a rebuild. I think it’s harder to blame a player for an obvious over-draft at the time than a player was drafted about where he was expected to go.
If it was an option for any of us we’d jump at it, so can’t blame him for trying. I hope it works out for him and he has fun doing it especially since the expectations are going to be a lot lower than they were for a 2nd round QB.
Yeah, I don’t see how his being a bust should preclude his having another chance to succeed. I don’t get the idea of hating someone personally just for being bad at football.
Sometimes it’s better to ignore those voices in the corn field.