Hack’ must attack when he gets first shot

CHRISTIAN Hackenberg is on the clock the second that Jets training camp begins, and time is of the essence for him.

He finds his young career at the intersection of Tank and Darnold, and it would behoove him to do everything in his power to immediately close the gap enough on Josh McCown, if he possibly can, so coach Todd Bowles is comfortable enough handing him the keys to the rebuilt Jets kingdom and giving him a 16-game audition as the quarterback of the future.

Following a rookie season as spectator, Hackenberg will need more than, say, a 10-game sample size to convince the powers-that-be and Jets fans forever engulfed in Broadway Woe that he is not a bust.

Whenever he gets his shot, he must hit the ground running the way Chad Pennington did when he took over for Vinny Testaverde early in 2002, his third NFL season. And by the time the season is over, Hackenberg must quiet any and all “Suck for Sam” chants and leave no doubt the franchise’s endless search for that elusive franchise quarterback is over.

Alas, he is a bigger underdog than the Joe Namath Super Bowl III Jets.

Good luck, Christian Hackenberg. You’ll need it. Mark Sanchez had a team around him that was built to win when he was anointed starter in 2009 as a rookie by coach Rex Ryan.

Hackenberg will have a team around him that outsiders believe is built to tank whenever Bowles deems him ready to throw to the wolves.

The offensive coordinator — John Morton, who never has called plays — is new, and the quarterbacks coach — Jeremy Bates, who was out of the league for two years — is new, and the receivers are no longer named Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, they are named Quincy Enunwa, Robby Anderson, Charone Peake and Austin Seferian-Jenkins. With rookies ArDarius Stewart and Chad Hansen waiting in the wings.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and after a rookie season when he wore Huggies, here it comes.

Until proven otherwise, the kid is set up to fail.

Just think about quarterbacks who struggled mightily the first time the bullets started flying around them: John Elway ... Peyton Manning ... Eli Manning. All of them were first-overall draft picks. None of them were considered projects who needed to be rebooted and rebuilt.

Hackenberg’s on-the-job training will be a trial by fire, an audition bound to be replete with error and errant passes. Baby steps will not be enough. He will have to grow overnight into a man to be The Man.

Hack enberg has benefited from observing up close and personal how professionals such as Ryan Fitzpatrick and McCown go about their business, but once he is forced to take those Huggies off, he will be asked to step into a huddle with teammates not named Matt Forte who are light on experience and begging for leadership from him.

Enunwa (80 career catches, four touchdowns) is the most experienced receiver in the house. Anderson caught 42 passes last season with two TDs. Peake caught 19 passes, zero TDs. Sefarian-Jenkins has 55 career receptions with seven TDs.

Bryce Petty, the 2015 fourthround pick, inspired little confidence in his injury-shortened cameo last season, and until proven otherwise cannot be considered the quarterback of the future — especially because as a 2016 secondround pick, Hackenberg has more invested in him and represents more of a referendum on general manager Mike Maccagnan.

Bowles cannot afford to tab Hackenberg as his Week 1 starter if there is no summer justification for it. Hackenberg has to win over the locker room first. The message it would send, should his teammates believe Bowles was content throwing Hackenberg to the wolves on the road in Buffalo, would help sabotage the 2017 season before it even begins.

For the Jets, the future is tomorrow. For Christian Hackenberg, the future is now.