New York Jets: The Christian Hackenberg Wait Begins
By Erik Lambert
Nobody is fooled by the New York Jets and their decision to sign Josh McCown. It’s plain as day he is a placeholder at best for the starting job.
Somebody meant to buy more time and try to hold the team together until Christian Hackenberg is ready. McCown is approaching 40-years old. He has never really been a great or even a good starting quarterback in his career. His best run came in 2013 with Chicago as a backup coming off the bench. With Brandon Marshall gone the well of weapons is drying up. Maybe others emerge but it doesn’t feel like McCown is the guy to coax him out.
That leaves a simple question. How long before the Jets give him the yank and put their former 2nd round pick in the game for the first time? Connor Hughes of NJ.com believes it won’t take long at all to happen.
"“It won’t be like Ryan Fitzpatrick’s last year, that’s for sure. I’d think a three-game losing streak would be enough to get Christian Hackenberg in there. Once the season takes a turn for the worse, the Jets will go to Hackenberg. I could see it happening as early as Week 4 (vs. Jaguars) or Week 5 (at Browns). This would give Hackenberg a tune-up game before facing the Patriots Week 6.”"
Not a great margin for error from McCowns’ perspective. Then again nobody thinks this Jets team is going anywhere in 2017. They are in the middle of a massive transition of old to young. That often leads to a rebuilding phase, and rebuilds mean losing. How much depends on how well they were able to tweak the roster over the past few months. They still have some good pieces on defense. Even some okay quarterback play could ease the pain Jets fans seem destined for.
Whether Hackenberg is the man to bring that about depends entirely on what the coaching staff thinks and what they see when training camp begins.