In a somewhat surprising revelation at Jets rookie camp yesterday, head coach Todd Bowles was asked about quarterback Christian Hackenberg’s off-season program that would consist of trying to re-build his throwing motion, a plan that many would assume the team played a role in, or was at least aware of. Turns out, that wasn’t the case at all.
According to northjersey.com, Bowles had this to say when asked about topic of his former second-round signal caller:
“He hasn’t talked to me about it,” Bowles said Saturday “He’s just worked on it and I learned about it after the fact.”
The fact that Hackenberg has looked nothing like a professional quarterback with the Jets means that any effort to make changes to his game should be viewed as a positive, but doing so without first consulting the team is a bit surprising.
The sliver lining here is that the work Hackenberg has been doing has been with highly thought of QB guru Jeff Christensen, who has been credited with the development of Jimmy Garoppolo, whom he first started working with back in 2007.
Hackenberg may not have let the Jets know what his off-season plans were, but if he shows up as the same guy who wasn’t good enough to get on the field last season, the Jets may free up his schedule to work indefinitely on his flawed mechanics as they’ll likely look to move on.