Problem is Rodgers looked like a completely different qb in his 2nd preseason. First preseason he was awful.
The Panthers took Jimmy Clausen in the mid 2nd in 2010. They played him right away and he was bad enough to get them Cam Newton the next season on the #1 pick. At some point this season Hack is likely to get the chance to prove that he is as valuable to the Jets as Clausen was to the Pantherrs.
We should play him for the 2 week stretch of Browns and Jaguars. McCown might give us too good of a chance to win those games.
The ones who are mad about the Hack pick are really mad because of what I bolded: We're sick and tired of seeing high draft picks wasted on dreck. Everyone knows that you have to build a team from draft, and look at the Jets drafting record - it sucks! And is has sucked over various GMs and HCs. It would be easy to chalk this consistent failure off to a curse, but I don't believe in such things, although maybe I should because I don't really understand why this team just always finds a way to "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory". The only thing that makes sense to me is that the ownership since Werblin has been clueless, and they've interfered with things behind the scenes for one reason or another - financial, thinking they knew better than proven football people - and have never established a vision for this team beyond maybe "ground & pound" which flies in the face of their logo. They desperately need to hire a proven NFL guy as Pres. of Football Ops, and let him finally put in place a vision for this team that has been wandering aimlessly in the wilderness for decades. If they don't, whether Hack makes it or not is small beer. As for Hack specifically, I give him credit for hanging in there and for believing in himself when so many don't, but the reality is that the majority may well be right.
I agree with everything in your post. The one thing that you didn't address that really drives me crazy is this: If the Jets had passed on Hack, and he had then been picked up by the Pats, where he could have gone and developed without any pressure and without a media microscope on him, this fanbase would be bitching even more and even louder about how Mac and Bowles let him slip past us. I'm not excusing the Jets for being terrible at drafting for decades on end, but I'm also tired of 99% of Jets' fans judging every move the team makes with 20/20 hindsight and comparing the franchise's worst moves against hypothetical best-case-scenarios. Some huge portion of Jets' fans actually believe that, had the Jets selected Dak Prescott, he would have been just as good here as he is in Dallas. Never mind the difference between the best O-line in football and a bottom-five O-line, never mind Dez Bryant and Jason Witten being somewhat higher-caliber than Robbie Anderson and Eric Freaking Tomlinson, ....it goes on and on. The Hack pick wasn't the best conceivable use of that pick, but it wasn't the event that brought about the End of Days for this franchise, either.
You're right. And I often ask myself if I'm using 20-20 hindsight when I criticize anything. And honestly, it's hard to ignore the facts of what actually happened when making those judgments. But I really do try. With respects to the Hack pick, at the time I was hopeful that Macc saw a true "diamond in the rough", I wanted to believe. I have always rooted for Penn State, having been born in Pa., and so having a Penn State guy come and be the FQB was something I hoped for. But here's the thing: I'm not a NFL scout, or coach or GM with access to all the data those guys have, but Macc is, and he used his 2nd overall pick on Hack, so I assumed that he knew something I didn't. Guess what? Apparently not. When they said they were going to "red shirt" him I knew there was a big problem. Still, I held hope that maybe they knew more than I did. Apparently not. The Hack pick was not "the end of days", but it is a symptom of something bigger that's wrong. The Jets draft poorly, but they also fail to develop talent properly, so it's hard to tell who was a bad draft pick, and who was ruined. What's your solution to this?
Jesus, can you imagine just how bad the armegeddon scenario for the Jets would have to be given what has already really happened?
I don't have a solution for the Jets. If I did, I'd be working for a successful NFL franchise somewhere and enjoying my $$$$. My personal solution, and my suggestion to fellow Jets fans, is simply to recognize what you have so succinctly summarized-- that it's hard to tell who was a bad draft pick and who was ruined. That's true for the Jets and for every other franchise from time to time. If fans will just compare how a pick turns out against the average player for the draft and round he was selected, instead of always comparing him against the guy who was still on the board that turned out to be a HOFer down the line, those fans will save themselves a lot of heartache and will have far more realistic expectations of their players and their GMs. As previously stated, the Jets need to draft far, far better than they have done historically, at every position and from the top of the draft to the bottom. The point being that the Jets are doing "D+" work. It's not good enough, and we should demand improvement--but pretending they're doing "F-" work and freaking the hell out over it isn't going to change anything except the blood pressure of the ones overreacting. It's a free country, get riled up if you want. It seems to be the norm these days, but I'm just bored of everything being so very polarizing.
The armageddon scenario for the Jets is a crappy season this year but not bad enough to get a top 3 pick, taking one of the other guys on the 6 or 7 and then reloading with a bunch of 28 year old talent in free agency next year with all the cap space. If the guy they got worked out they'd be good for maybe one year in 2019 before all the talent dropped out again. If the guy didn't work out they'd probably stretch the no playoffs streak to 12 or 13 years at least.
The problem isn't that Mac drafted a second round bust. It's that he thought Hack was a good quarterback. #QBlindness
I don't understand this logic from fans. He was red shirted his rookie season. Unable to get any reps behind Fitz, Geno and Petty. Then year 2 he was given reps and even started a couple preseason games. Unfortunately it was on one of the worst offenses in the NFL. So now he is a 2nd Round bust? Honestly makes fans sound moronic thinking that way. Two years from now he may still be in this same spot and never got the offense and is released by the Jets and labeled a bust. That would be fine. Right now though? Ridiculous.
He throws a decent swing pass tbh. I posted some positivity about the pick at first. But after looking at how he's looked in the preseason games I can't imagine anyone would've taken him before the fifth. For those claiming how bad the offense around him is, true. But. Josh McCown completed 26/39 (66.7%) passes with that same shitty offense against a gameplanned defense. Josh McCown is 18-43 (W-L) in his career. Bryce Petty completed 32/48 (66.7%) for 426 (8.9 y/a), 3 touchdowns and 1 pick with the same shitty offense. 13.3 yards per completion. Hackenberg was 42/74 (56.8%) for 372 (5.0 y/a) with 2 touchdowns and 2 picks with that same shitty offense. 8.8 yards per completion. It's night and day boys. He sucks.
Let's take a look at the ol' Aaron Rodgers crutch and how he looked in his preseasons from 2006-2008 (2008 first year as starter w/o Favre). 2006 preseason 22/38 (57.9%) for 323 yards, 3 touchdowns/1 pick -- 14.6 yards per completion 2007 preseason 37/59 (62.7%) for 382 yards, 3 touchdowns/no picks -- 10.3 yards per completion 2008 preseason 37/54 (68.5%) for 436 yards, 3 touchdowns/1 pick -- 11.8 yards per completion
Thanks JV. Interesting to note that Petty's preseason stats this year are similar to Rodgers 2008 preseason. And like Rodgers, Petty's stats have gotten better each year. Maybe the Jets should give him a try???
