Jon Gruden has long admired Christian Hackenberg
Jon Gruden has admired Christian Hackenberg for some time. Since the two met at Gruden’s QB Camp in 2016, their union was bound to happen…
The Oakland Raiders made a pretty minor trade in the grand scheme of things, sending a late draft pick to the New York Jets in exchange for quarterback Christian Hackenberg.
Jon Gruden has really been making some executive decisions when it comes to the roster for the Raiders this offseason, and this move is more evidence of that.
Gruden has a connection with a few of the quarterbacks on his roster thanks to the ESPN special Gruden’s QB Camp which featured Hackenberg prior to the 2016 NFL Draft.
To get the clearest picture of how Gruden feels (or, at least, felt) about Hackenberg, you’ve got to check out this video.
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Much of Gruden’s excitement — like the rest of us — came from how incredibly poised Hackenberg was as an 18-year old freshman working in Bill O’Brien’s no-bull NFL-style offense.
Gruden was very impressed by Hackenberg’s ability to check formations and read defenses before the snap while also being able to recall information from O’Brien’s offense and the different schemes he ran throughout his time at Penn State.
The video concludes with Gruden stating he would be shocked if Hackenberg were not picked in the first round.
Obviously, he wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean Gruden can’t take a chance on him and try to extract that talent.
Hackenberg is still just 23 years old. There’s reason to think he can’t figure things out because to this point he hasn’t. But there’s also reason to believe that the best of Hackenberg is yet to come, and Gruden is probably going to be willing to spend the extra time to extract it.
There’s not even necessarily a guarantee that Hackenberg makes it out of camp with the Raiders, but the faith Gruden once had in him could be all he needs.