Mike Maccagnan finally speaks about Christian Hackenberg

It’s no secret that quarterback Christian Hackenberg will forever be remembered as another New York Jets draft bust. General manager Mike Maccagnan finally speaks about that entire situation.

Even at first when the New York Jets drafted quarterback Christian Hackenberg in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft, many fans and analysts felt they overreached. A lot of draft gurus had Hackenberg on their boards as a third round or later selection.

Desperate to find some kind of answer at the most important position on the team, general manager Mike Maccagnan took a chance on Hackenberg despite initial reviews from across the draft landscape. Needless to say, things didn’t work out even from the start.

All throughout his first year in the pros reports surfaced from training camps and practices that he was an awful quarterback. Many chalked it up to the growing pains of transitioning to the NFL, but when beat reporters started writing about how he terrible he was with passing, the writing was already on the wall.

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Last season, even with Josh McCown out for the season with a broken hand injury and Bryce Petty playing abysmally, the Jets didn’t even trust Hackenberg enough to play him in another losing season.

Hackenberg didn’t even get a single snap coming his way in a regular season game in 2017, likely due to the Jets avoiding the inevitable embarrassment from the media that he was indeed one of the worst quarterbacks in recent memory.

Maccagnan has kept quiet about everything involving Hackenberg, including his release this offseason once the Jets realized it was time to cut bait. As per Rich Cimini of ESPN, here’s what Maccagnan said about Hackenberg:

Jets GM Mike Maccagnan finally acknowledged the obvious — QB Christian Hackenberg was a mistake. Well, he didn’t exactly use that word. “I don’t think you would look at it as a success,” he said. The former second-round pick, who didn’t play a single snap in two years, was traded to the Raiders in June. He was released two weeks later and remains a free agent.

In the grand scheme of things, Hackenberg will go down in Jets history for being another failed project at quarterback. There isn’t much anyone could do with Hackenberg as even though he was traded to the Oakland Raiders, he couldn’t even last there until training camp. Hackenberg was released yet again in a span of just a few weeks proving he has no place on an NFL roster. He’s yet to sign with another team with training camp officially underway across the league.

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Hopefully, Maccagnan learned a lot about this entire situation but will likely be forgiven if newly drafted quarterback Sam Darnold ends up being everything the Jets expect him to be and then some. The football world won’t know for at least a few years but for now, Darnold is already looking like Maccagnan finally got it right when drafting a future franchise quarterback.