Christian Hackenberg discusses how to prevent pressure

Quarterback Christian Hackenberg continues his efforts to earn a starting job under center with the New York Jets. He discusses what he does to prevent too much pressure on himself.

With the first week of training camp and the Green & White scrimmage game in the books, quarterback Christian Hackenberg has seen both sides of the spectrum. Some days, he’s looking improved from anything the New York Jets saw last season and is progressing.

Other days, he is showing his usual tendencies of completely missing receiving targets with many wondering if the Jets made a dire mistake in even drafting him. Of course, when it comes to playing in the city that never sleeps, it’s not easy dealing with all the pressure that comes with being a professional athlete.

That pressure is intensified when it comes to a quarterback that is making his case to be starting under center. At this point in time, the Jets are holding a quarterback competition but are handling it all wrong as Josh McCown is seemingly leading in reps given and well, even more pressure is stacked on Hackenberg’s shoulders in the limited reps he gets to prove his worth.

As per the Media Relations Department of the Jets, Hackenberg recently chimed his thoughts on preventing himself from putting too much pressure on himself throughout this quarterback competition:

I think that goes back to what we’re being coached to do. I think Coach Bates does a great job at emphasizing playing smart football and throwing the football away. That’s something that all quarterbacks kind of have to get into, and we’ve actually been practicing it. I think I said that the other day. Practicing that habit is really good because it’s hard. You go into practice and you want to complete every football and you want to make things work but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way and you need to be able to train yourself so when the lights come on you can make that decision and live with it and be able to move on. Those types of things come and I think again it kind of goes back to our practice habits and what we’re being coached (to do).

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If anything, it’s good to see Hackenberg embrace the reality of the situation and understand that it all comes down to the mindset of a quarterback.

Yeah, he’s still having issues with accuracy and footwork but the talent is there. It just takes time for everything to come together and again, simply playing smart football and being coached the right way.

Overall, things aren’t going well for Hackenberg as by the looks of it, McCown is the frontrunner to be starting come Week 1 but hopefully, he’ll get an opportunity to make his regular season debut at some point with the Jets. Until then, all Hackenberg can do is listen to his coaches and continue to prepare for his eventual moment.

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