Logan Bowles USA TODAY Sports
After Saturday’s loss to Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl, a game which ended early for him due to a right shoulder injury, Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg announced that he will forego his senior season and enter the 2016 NFL Draft. The shoulder injury is not considered serious, so Hackenberg’s pre-draft preparation and workouts should not be impacted.
Hackenberg did not have a great junior season, completing 53.3 percent of his passes for 2,386 yards with 16 touchdown passes. But he threw just five interceptions, in 345 pass attempts, and he went without throwing an interception in six straight games at one point. Hackenberg has the size (6’4″, 228 lbs.) and arm strength to garner attention from NFL scouts, but he took 103 sacks during his college career (82 over the last two seasons) and he was a poor fit for the offense deployed by Penn State head coach James Franklin over the last two seasons.
Hackenberg seemed to be headed for big things after a great freshman season in 2013, when he threw for 2,955 yards with 20 touchdown passes (10 interceptions) on his way to being named Big Ten Freshman of the Year. That season came under the tutelage of head coach Bill O’Brien, who himself headed for the NFL to become head coach of the Houston Texans after just two seasons at Penn State.
The Texans are going to win the AFC South this season, barring a series of unlikely developments that all have to occur on Sunday, but they don’t have a long-term solution at quarterback. Rumors of O’Brien’s interest in the head coaching job at Maryland surfaced before it was filled, but assuming he stays in Houston he has a chance to hand-pick Hackenberg as the Texans’ quarterback of the future.
Hackenberg is not considered a likely first-round pick at this stage, but his status as a second or third-round pick would actually work better for the Texans. They can address another need in the first round, with what is on track to be a pick somewhere in the range of No. 20-25 overall, then get Hackenberg in the second round if they choose.
Hackenberg has shown substantial flaws during the struggles of the last two seasons, and that can’t be ignored in the evaluation of him. But the upside he showed as a freshman presumably did not go away, it just comes down to finding the right fit at the next level if he’s going to reach his full potential. A reunion with O’Brien in Houston is almost too obvious to come true, but the Texans should have Hackenberg high on their draft board if their head coach is willing to vouch for his former signal caller.
Brad Berreman is a Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Follow him on Twitter.
