Christian Hackenberg has nobody to blame but himself

Christian Hackenberg’s tenure with the New York Jets is officially over and he has nobody to blame but himself for his inability to earn playing time.

When it comes to any company you work for, it all comes down to the effort, patience, and time you put into yourself in order to succeed. Even if you have a terrible manager or lazy co-workers, it’s easy to make a name for yourself if you separate yourself from the rest and be known for a positive attitude, hard work ethics, and being a spark that makes it happen. Unfortunately for quarterback Christian Hackenberg and his impact with the New York Jets, he failed to do any of that.

Ever since he was selected in Round 2 of the 2016 NFL Draft, Hackenberg didn’t do himself any favors to earn playing time when he had a plethora of opportunities to do so. Even with subpar quarterbacks around him not doing enough to win football games, he was still on the outside looking in. He didn’t even get a chance to play in garbage time since he was that bad of a quarterback.

It’s easy to tell within a year or so if a player has what it takes or not to succeed at the pro level. While the Jets will forever be known as overreaching for Hackenberg, that wasn’t the beginning of his issues with the team.

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In the grand scheme of things, Hackenberg simply wasn’t a good quarterback in college and didn’t apply himself enough in the pros to get over the learning curve. He’s inaccurate and didn’t have the right mechanics to show that he was more than capable enough to hit all the throws needed to succeed.

Coaching, training, and development can only take you so far since Hackenberg simply never had the talent needed to take his career to the next level. All he did, in his final interview with the New York media, was blame everyone around him except himself for his failure to earn playing time during two regular seasons with the Jets.

It wasn’t the Jets fault that he didn’t put in extra time to work on his accuracy. It wasn’t the Jets fault that he had issues remembering the core terms and philosophies in their offensive playbook. It also wasn’t the Jets fault that Hackenberg never applied himself to step up and do more to warrant giving him an opportunity to at least show what he could do in games that actually counted.

Just like any job, if you aren’t producing results or exhibiting potential as to why you need to be employed, you won’t be. Hackenberg’s tenure with the Jets will be long remembered many years from now for being a player that didn’t have the skills to get a starting spot over the likes of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Geno Smith, Josh McCown, and Bryce Petty in two years with the franchise. Let that sink in.