I've blocked it out of my memory completely, so my recollection of what happened is only a little more accurate than Hackenberg.
I was surprised and realized it was a boom or complete bust of a pick but at that time I (along with mostly everybody else I’m sure) still had faith in Mac coming off of his 2015 offseason and assumed he did his homework - I was wrong.
I couldn't believe it at the time. I was already disgusted with Maccagnan for drafting Bryce Petty and Devin Smith the year before. Looking at clips of Hackenberg and reading the draft analysts I respected led me to believe that Hackenberg would be a bust. I thought, "Maccagnan better be right about this or I'll burn him at the stake." Unfortunately, I never got the chance.
Never heard of him until we drafted him. I recall him looking pretty lost in a pre season game. That's about it.
All I'm really recalling was a lot of fingerprinting about why he sucked at PSU. Bad OL, new coach wanted to change his mechanics, etc. Lots of problems that were explained away. I don't remember how I personally reacted and it doesn't really matter. Probably happy that we were at least trying to address the position.
It was not good, I actually forgot about him. He was that useless and inept as a QB. Greg McElroy was better
OK. A QB should be drafted every year in my opinion so I will always forgive a shit QB pick (to a point) Macc did at least 20 things worse than drafting Hackenberg in his “worst Jets GM ever” tenure.
I knew nothing about him, but I read a lot of excuses for why he'd been so bad in college. Then he absolutely lit it up on his first drive in preseason and one of the announcers said 'Dare I say a star is born?' He never came anywhere near that again and last I saw of him he was looking absolutely woeful in that short-lived league a while ago. I mean, he was just beyond terrible.
I basically wrote a book about him on TGG and it was very painful to reread as I reviewed it. We should have fired Macc after 2017. The Hackenberg pick was never good and it was a big part of the Jets inability to resolve the QB position over the last 5 seasons. It also contributed heavily to the decline in the overall roster over that span. The 51 pick for him and then 3 high 2nds to trade from 6 to 3 for another QB who did not work out.
I think Hackenberg offers proof as to why you don’t just draft a QB for the sake of drafting QB. The Jets literally would have been better off forfeiting the pick. Remember they had to carry Hackenberg on the roster for two seasons. His roster spot could have gone to a player whom could actually help the team win.