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It’s over. Finally.
I’m promised yesterday to get into the trade of Christian Hackenberg today. Here goes.
First off, the pick was a mistake. Well let me put it this way – it as a mistake where they picked him.
If you wanted to take a flyer on the player in the, let’s say, fifth round, go for it.
But to take a QB, coming off two rough seasons, when he took a terrible beating, late in the draft, go for it.
But the second round for this player was a case of overdrafting.
It remains a mystery why Mike Maccagnan thought the Jets could fix Hackenberg’s accuracy. That is really hard to do. Some people will tell you it’s impossible. If you aren’t accurate in college, why would you be accurate in the NFL, a much more challenging level of the sport? But Maccagnan certainly learned from it, picking the accurate Sam Darnold this year.
But hey, the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens just picked inaccurate quarterbacks in the first round, so that is probably worse than doing it in the middle of the second.
But let’s move past the accuracy thing for a minute.
Let’s get into the handling of the player.
Cleary Hackenberg as a wedge issue between Jets GM Mike Maccagnan and coach Todd Bowles.
I’ve mentioned before these two don’t have the best relationship.
And this Hackenberg situation hasn’t been a help.
This is one of the problems with the Jets corporate set-up. When the GM and coach are on the same level, and they were put together in a shotgun wedding, and both report to the owner, this can cause dysfunction.
One reason is that the way things are set up, Maccagnan decides who they draft and who makes the team, and Bowles decides who plays.
So the coach doesn’t like a player the GM picked, he can always get back at the GM by just refusing to play the guy.
There was no excuse – none – for Hackenberg to not play, at some point, at the end of last year after Josh McCown got hurt. That made no sense. Bowles kept saying he needed to see what Bryce Petty could do. Why? You saw what he could do the year before, and then when the same stuff was happening with him last season (poor accuracy, field vision and pocket presence), why not pull the plug and give Hackenberg a game, or at least a half. This made little sense.
On Tuesday, during the two-hour practice, I didn’t see Maccagnan and Bowles talk. I’ve covered the NFL a long time, and it’s commonplace for the GM/coach to chat during practice, especially in camps, to discuss players. And if you were thinking of trading Hackenberg after practice, why not talk for a few minutes during practice? I have to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I saw these two talking on the practice field. I see Todd talk to Brian Heimerdinger on the practice field all the time, but Todd and Mike, I can’t remember the last time.
Hey, maybe moving on from Hackenberg will help their relationship.
May 23, 2018
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