Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Jets trade QB Hackenberg to Raiders
FLORHAM PARK, N. J. » Christian Hackenberg spent his final day with the New York Jets much as he did in his first two seasons. As a spectator. The Jets traded the 23- year- old quarterback to the Oakland Raiders on Tuesday for a conditional seventh- round draft pick next year, ending Hackenberg’s tenure with the team before he ever took a regular- season snap.
“Some players, it takes a while for them to get going,” said coach Todd Bowles, who announced the trade after his postpractice news conference was delayed for two hours as the deal was being completed.
“We did everything we could to try to help him as best we could,” Bowles added. “Sometimes it just works out somewhere else.”
Hackenberg was a secondround pick out of Penn State in 2016, but never played a regularseason snap for the Jets. The 23- year- old quarterback was clearly No. 4 on New York’s depth chart, behind veterans Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater and first- rounder Sam Darnold.
“We’ve got three quarterbacks and obviously we drafted Sam in the first ( round),” Bowles said. “We like Teddy andwe like Josh. We just had one too many to get all of them reps.”
Hackenberg stood back and merely watched as McCown, Bridgewater and Darnold took their snaps during 11- on- 11 and 7- on- 7 team drills during the first practice of organized team activities. Hackenberg threw during position drills, but that was it — and, as it turned out, that was by design.
Hackenberg joins a quarterbacks room with the Raiders that includes Derek Carr, EJ Manuel and Connor Cook. Oakland coach Jon Gruden worked with Hackenberg for his “Gruden’s QB Camp” series before the 2016 draft, so he has some familiarity with the young signal caller.