NY Jets: Christian Hackenberg lands local high school coaching job

Former NY Jets‘ quarterback Christian Hackenberg didn’t exactly have the most successful NFL career. In fact, it might be a stretch to say he even had a career given that he never suited up for a regular-season game.

But since retiring from the NFL he’s remained busy. And his latest venture will see him embarking on a new journey and starting his coaching career in the same state that he once called home during his NFL career.

Hackenberg, who turned just 26-years-old last month, has been hired as the quarterbacks coach at Winslow Township High School in New Jersey marking the first coaching job of his young career.

This comes after a failed stint in the short-lived Alliance of American Football and a brief attempt to revive his career as a baseball pitcher. Now, Hackenberg will attempt to transition to the world of coaching.

Christian Hackenberg is one of the NY Jets’ greatest draft misses in recent memory

A second-round pick of the Jets in the 2016 NFL Draft, Hackenberg was seen as more of a Day 3 prospect leading up to the draft. But then-general-manager Mike Maccagnan decided to take a chance on his natural arm talent with the hope that he could develop in the NFL.

Unfortunately, that never came to be.

Hackenberg spent just two years with the Jets, never playing in a regular-season game, before being shipped to the Oakland Raiders for a future conditional seventh-round pick in May of 2018.

The former Penn State star would bounce around on the practice squads of the Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, and Cincinnati Bengals before being released in November of the same year.

That’s when he tried his luck in the ill-fated AAF when he was drafted by the Memphis Express. However, after just three games, Hackenberg was benched in favor of fellow NFL flame-out Zach Mettenberger.

And when Mettenberger later went down with an injury, it was former undrafted free agent Brandon Silvers who replaced him, not Hackenberg.

From former second-round pick to AAF third-stringer, it was certainly quite the fall from grace for Christian Hackenberg.

He briefly tried his luck at a baseball revival last summer, but after that didn’t work out, he’s seemingly taken to coaching.

Interestingly enough, the school in which Hackenberg will be coaching at has produced numerous future NFL players including former Jets’ running back Shonn Greene.

Hackenberg never found success as an NFL quarterback. But perhaps his venture into the coaching world could be the start of a new lease on his football life.

After all, there is some truth behind the old proverb that reads, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”