New York Jets Should be Patient with Quarterback Christian Hackenberg

The New York Jets have had a disappointing season in 2016. Should they start rookie Christian Hackenberg to see what he can do?

It has been an awful season for the New York Jets in 2016. After being 10-6 last season, the Jets have a 3-7 record as they enter their bye week. Poor play from the quarterback position has resulted in the offense struggling, but that isn’t the only thing wrong with this team.

For years, the Jets have been searching for a franchise quarterback. Ever seen Chad Pennington left, the Jets haven’t had very good production come from the position despite using a lot of draft picks trying to find the answer.

In the past two seasons, general manager Mike Maccagnan has used two draft picks on quarterbacks. The first came in 2015 when he selected Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty. This past NFL Draft, Maccagnan shockingly used a second round pick on Christian Hackenberg.

Despite not having a great college career at Penn State, the Jets liked what they saw physically from Hackenberg and planned to develop him. The trend of having quarterbacks sit in their first season has gone away, as rookies have had big impacts around the league for the past number of years. For the Jets, they aren’t planning on rushing Hackenberg.

“It’s really [about] the player he eventually develops into, and that’s really what you have to focus on,” Maccagnan said to Darryl Slater of NJ.com. “We feel good about him. But we also want to make sure we don’t set a timetable in there to what he may eventually be. Our goal is to develop him, and if he can fulfill his potential then obviously that’s good for us.

“At the end of the day, we look at our players’ development. I don’t think necessarily if a player is playing or isn’t playing necessarily means [that he won’t become] the player he may eventually develop into. You don’t really know in time.

This season, Hackenberg has yet to even be active in a game for the Jets this season. With four quarterbacks on the roster heading into the season, Hackenberg and Petty have mostly been inactive this season.

“But I do think we like Christian. There are a lot of things about him [we like]. We see a lot of potential in him. We knew going in there were things he needed to improve upon.

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“The idea was simply if we were going to take a quarterback at some point in time, to have them in the pipeline to develop. [Petty’s] improvement in one year to the next has been … he’s made quite a bit of improvement. The same thing would hold true for Christian going forward.”

Against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 10, the Jets decided to start Petty for the first time in his career. Like Hackenberg, Petty is a project of the Jets and one that we still don’t know too much about. It is unfair to judge a player after just one game in the NFL, and the Jets would be wise to let him start for the rest of the season to develop and so the organization can evaluate him.

The Jets had Petty sit for nearly a year and a half before he was finally given a shot. Due to Hackenberg likely having limited reps in practice during the week, the Jets would be wise to let him sit the entire season, and possibly give him a shot to compete in 2017.

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Just because the Jets are struggling, it doesn’t mean that they need to rush Hackenberg if they don’t think he is ready. Being patient is certainly the right move when it comes to the development of Hackenberg.

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