After attending Penn State and being drafted in the second round by the Jets in 2016, Christian Hackenberg has poor memories of his time in New York.
Hackenberg, who never took a snap in a regular-season NFL game, opened up this week about his poor experience in New York and how Gang Green was not a good fit for him.
“New York was probably the last place I should’ve gone, in terms of the market, the expectations, the way it was,” Hackenberg said on the “Ross Tucker Football Podcast,” on Wednesday. “In my rookie year, we ended up keeping four quarterbacks. So there was just not a lot of opportunity for me to develop and grow. No plan, kind of an up-and-down organization.
“And I think it was just one of those things where the timing and where it ended up just wasn’t in the cards for me at that position.”
Hackenberg was highly sought after in high school, ranking as the No. 1 overall quarterback recruit for the class of 2013, according to ESPN.
After throwing for 8,457 yards and 48 touchdowns in three seasons at Penn State, he went to the Jets in the second round.
But Hackenberg spent just two seasons with the Jets, who had a revolving door of quarterbacks during his tenure under head coach Todd Bowles.
Snaps were given to Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bryce Petty, Geno Smith and Josh McCown from 2016-17, but Hackenberg never saw the field for the Jets in a game that counted.
Hackenberg was finally traded after his second season with the Jets, being moved to the Raiders for a conditional seventh-round pick in May 2018.
The formerly highly touted prospect would last just three weeks with the Raiders and would have stints with the Eagles and Bengals that year.
Hackenberg said it was a “battle” with all the expectations he faced.
“There’s so many circumstances that go into it. And when I came out, I still knew that I needed a lot that I needed to get better at,” Hackenberg said of getting drafted. “But at the same token, I also had all these expectations and the narrative out there that this kid was going to be good.
“It was just this really kind of battle internally and then externally with messaging and how things were being portrayed that I had to deal with.”
Hackenberg attempted to ignite a baseball career in 2020 after his NFL career faded, boasting a fastball that reached 90-plus mph, though he quickly abandoned that dream.
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