Jets repeating old mistakes with Christian Hackenberg

New York Jets quarterback Christian Hackenberg is Geno Smith 2.0.

The New York Jets are making the same mistakes they did with quarterback Christian Hackenberg that they did with Geno Smith. The Jets have a history of getting the quarterback position wrong in the draft, but they are now showing a bad history of evaluating their own quarterbacks.

When Smith was the quarterback, he had an average offensive line, a suspect running game, and a below average receiving core. The offensive line is terrible and because of that they can’t get a running game going, and they’re building their wide receiver core from scratch.

The football world can’t really get a true evaluation of Hackenberg with the team that’s around him. It’s just not good enough to promote serious growth, let alone, be in a successful situation.

As Boomer Esiason pointed out to Darryl Slater of NJ.com, he simply doesn’t have the right tools around him in order to thrive:

“I don’t know what to make of him,” Esiason said Wednesday at CBS Sports’ preseason NFL media event. “It’s hard to say, because I think we all see the same thing: Is there a team there to support him? Is the offensive line good enough? Is the running game good enough? Are the wide outs good enough? He’s in another new offense. You’re asking like almost the impossible.

More from Jets News

• NY Jets expected to be ‘much more aggressive’ in free agency this year
• NY Jets: Patriots will not use the franchise tag on Joe Thuney
• NY Jets officially place the franchise tag on safety Marcus Maye
• NY Jets: 3 reasons to be optimistic about the 2021 season
• NY Jets: Analyzing the ways to upgrade the cornerback position

Many people also are going into the regular season with the preconceived notion that Sam Darnold will be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. So, that adds to the narrative that we should run Hackenberg out of town.

The evaluation of Hackenberg can’t really begin until 2018 if the Jets try to build a team around him. If the evaluation is that he’s improving, but not quick enough to earn the starting job, that doesn’t mean he can’t be a viable NFL starter in the future.

You can run Hackenberg out of town if you want. If you do that, though, you will be in the same situation in 2020 as you are now, looking for answers at quarterback. Just like it was with Smith just a few years ago.