David Aitken looks into the plan for Christian Hackenberg and how he’s been set up to fail.

With such a disastrous preseason performance last Saturday it’s easy to pile on and ride the latest wave of over-the-top negative criticism that’s come crashing toward this football team. But this isn’t a kneejerk reaction into an alarming preseason performance. It’s “just one game” even if early signs of a pattern are emerging. Rather, Saturday was a clear symptom of the greater issue: the Jets are so far form their original plan for Hackenberg, it’s impossible to see how this ends in anything but complete failure.

In late April of 2016, Mike Maccagnan’s public perception was markedly different. He had come fresh off winning Executive of the Year during his rookie season as a general manager, putting together a roster that for all intents and purposes was good enough to make the playoffs. His first ever draft pick was already a strong contributor. He could have been forgiven for ignoring the quarterback position in the draft, using his first few picks to plug immediate issues with readymade players. He instead made one of the draft’s most surprising picks and took the polarizing Christian Hackenberg in round two.

It has been often said on this site but it always bears repeating when talking about Hackenberg – he was an enormous project and risk for any team to take highly. He left college early after two poor final seasons at Penn State in which his completion percentage dropped all three years as a starter. The last time he even looked on the path of becoming an NFL starter was as a true freshman. This was not the typical “he could really do with a year on the bench” lip service most top prospects get where teams still mostly end up playing the quarterback early and it’s inconsequential. Hackenberg entered the league a broken player. But so the narrative goes – he has all the tools, he’s just 21-years-old, his command of a pro style offense at 18 is a testament to high football intelligence and leadership skills. It was enough that you knew someone would fall in love with him, and coincidentally or not it was the Jets GM who had previously worked in Houston with Hackenberg’s freshman head coach Bill O’Brien.

Taking a project quarterback highly in the draft is rarely a good idea. Few organizations have the trust from ownership or the fan base to do so without the pressure of playing the player before he is ready, or the infrastructure to patiently develop a player. They are best reserved for consistently competitive franchises with a tenured coaching staff, who have “earned” the occasional gamble and whiff if it doesn’t work out. The Patriots may have struck big turning Matt Cassel and Jimmy Garoppollo into sought after tradable assets, but they also took chances on Ryan Mallet and Kevin O’Connell. Maccagnan thought he had built this window for Hackenberg after the 2015 season. The veteran passing offense cogs of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker would buy time. Chan Gailey spearheading the development, with decades of NFL experience including working with Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and John Elway, meant Hackenberg’s development was in good hands. But what he thought would be a 2-3 transitional period was a one-and-done and collapse that has the Jets at square one (or worse).

Entering this season the Jets had a dilemma – what was best for Christian Hackenberg’s long-term development and what was best for the long-term health of the franchise were directly at odds. Fans had been clamoring for a “rebuild year” forever where the team takes stock in the roster’s young talent and sheds highly paid veterans. However, any developing quarterback needs coaching familiarity, a system that plays to his strengths and talented players to lean on. Dak Prescott’s success was buoyed by an elite running game and offensive line as well as a legit #1 receiver. The respective jobs of Tampa Bay and Tennessee surrounding their franchise quarterbacks with quality talent has been excellent. Maccagnan could have held onto Marshall and Decker, or spent to add talent, or target offensive playmakers at the top of the draft. He could have prioritized bringing aboard an offensive coordinator that had worked with Bill O’Brien previously instead of hiring a West Coast Offense minded coordinator for a quarterback that never was 60% or better completion percentage in college. If you think you’ve found your quarterback, you’re all-in on what it takes to maximize him.

But regardless, Hackenberg’s development arc probably wasn’t ever going to lead to him looking ready after one redshirt year anyway. It’s an unrealistic expectation. Such was how far away he was entering the league, and the magnitude of project Mike Maccagnan committed to. Josh McCown presumably is the half-measure response to addressing this – McCown allows Hackenberg to continue riding the bench, until pressure inevitably throws Hackenberg into the fire or McCown gets sidelined. But with basically nothing in the way of a support system for a young quarterback, playing Hackenberg now is less giving a young player a shot as it is using him as our Jimmy Clausen, hoping there’s a Cam Newton level prospect at the end of this.

The point of this year is to get answers about where the young talent on the roster stands. But in regards to Hackenberg’s development, him seeing regular season action in 2017 was never the initial plan. His selection in 2016 was a leap of faith by Maccagnan in the staying power of what was built in 2015, and the time it would buy to be patient with a quarterback. The already uphill battle in turning around Christian Hackenberg has now surpassed the size of Mount Everest. For better or worse the Jets need an answer as to whether they need to target a quarterback highly in next year’s draft. As ugly as it promises to be, at least we’ll get one.

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Photo Credit: NewYorkJets.com