Christian Hackenberg’s guest appearance with the Oakland Raiders didn’t even last a month – on Thursday the quarterback was released again. The first team visit does not take long, however, the New England Patriots show interest.
NFL network insider Mike Garafolo reports that Hackenberg will meet with the Patriots. The quarterback, who had been traded a few weeks earlier from the New York Jets to the Raiders, had passed through the Waiver Wire after his release in Oakland without a team showing any interest. This makes him a free agent and he can sign anywhere.
The Raiders had given a conditional seven-round draft pick for Hackenberg, the dismissal makes this pick obsolete. It seems that the new Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who had praised Hackenberg in the highest notes before his draft, just wanted to get an idea for himself.
According to ESPN, Gruden himself denounced the reduced training times: “Everyone out there is an expert on Hackenberg and thinks he has no skills. It’s an unfortunate situation with the whole collective bargaining agreement. How do you develop a quarterback? I honestly don’t know.”
Hackenberg “worked on changing his throwing movement, and he succeeded in doing so. We just didn’t have enough reps to really study him more closely. “Since we’ve already moved on with other boys, we simply had no place.”
For Hackenberg himself, a bizarre NFL career continues. The jets had already received a lot of criticism in 2016 when they selected the extremely raw quarterback in the second round of the drag. Afterwards, Hackenberg was discussed over and over again, but the 23-year-old did not get any chance: Hackenberg left the jets without NFL snap.
With the Patriots the first backup spot behind Tom Brady with Brian Hoyer is fixed. Behind this, however, Hackenberg could at least theoretically have a chance: The third quarterback of the Pats is this year’s seven-round pick Danny Etling.