If there’s one topic college football people love to debate upon, it’s the NFL Draft stock of former Penn State Nittany Lions quarterback Christian Hackenberg. It’s a subject that you can argue until you’re blue (and white) in the face, and you’ll still never really figure it out.
As Marge Simpson told her husband Homer: “you know, it’s very easy to criticize.”
“Fun too,” Homer J. Simpson responded.
As someone who updates their NFL mock draft every week throughout the year, and 2-3 times per week this time of year, I of course produced “Christian Hackenberg NFL Draft Stock Over-Analysis Column 2014” following PSU’s loss at Illinois that November.
Every franchise needs a sequel and that came with “Christian Hackenberg Over-Analysis Column 2015” this past fall when a ton of NFL scouts showed up to PSU’s loss at Northwestern. Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace was there (presumably to see Carl Nassib or Anthony Zettel maybe??), and it inspired a couple cheesy, insecure local Chicago journalists to do the tacky, name-dropping “just had a chat with Ryan Pace” Tweets that day.
This specific game inspired yet another round of Christian Hackenberg NFL Draft stock over-analysis, meta-analysis articles from all over the web.
As it stands right now, most draftniks see Carson Wentz the first quarterback going off the board, although some will still put Jared Goff the first signal caller. Then it’s Paxton Lynch third and that’s pretty much it for QB prospects in round one. I still like Hackenberg as the fourth QB selected, and I’ll have words with anyone who places Connor Cook above him for that position.
The slots where QBs could go is #2 Cleveland, #7 San Francisco, #15 Los Angeles, and maybe #31 Denver, possibly.
It’s almost a sport to mock Hack in the first round, strictly for the purpose of getting the commenters riled up. Good times.
Yesterday, Penn State football sent out a press release stating that Hackenberg was going to do the NFL Draft version of a “junket,” appearing on a ESPN series: “Hey Rookie, Welcome to the NFL” on ESPN, as well as Jon Gruden’s “QB Camp.”
Hey Rookie, Welcome to the NFL is a four-part NFL Films-produced series features top draft prospects Jared Goff (California), Carson Wentz (North Dakota State), Christian Hackenberg (Penn State), Robert Nkemdiche and Laquon Treadwell (Mississippi), Noah Spence (Eastern Kentucky), Karl Joseph (West Virginia), and Kenneth Dixon (Louisiana Tech).
Hackenberg is the third consecutive Nittany Lion to be featured on the Hey Rookie series, joining current Chicago Bear Adrian Amos (2015) and current Baltimore Raven John Urschel (2014) as participants.
Will it drive up the price of your Christian Hackenberg NFL Draft stock? Well, it can’t hurt. Most likely, it will help.
Remember, no position is as dramatically “over-drafted,” where you say “that’s a reach,” as the quarterback position.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram