New York Jets quarterback battle: Josh McCown vs. Christian Hackenberg

Christian Hackenberg

With an historically bad supporting cast, I’m not sure the time is right for Christian Hackenberg to be the starting quarterback of the New York Jets. Of course, if he waits until the roster is ready to make his way to the starting lineup, it might not be for awhile.

While I — like many — was critical of Hackenberg coming out of college for his significant three-year regression, I think there’s a very talented quarterback somewhere inside of him. Whether or not he can extract the player he was as a freshman at Penn State remains to be seen, but Hackenberg’s failure to live up to big time hype can’t be the story of his football career.

Still young, Hackenberg has physical tools but obvious inexperience when compared to Josh McCown. His youth won’t be an advantage for a coaching staff looking to prove it can make a bad roster competitive, even in a rebuild situation.

My opinion has historically been to simply play the young quarterback and find out what you have, but there’s something to be said for learning off the field as well.

I think we’ll see Hackenberg challenge McCown for the starting job this offseason, but ultimately, I doubt the coaching staff has the guts to throw him out there week one.