Report: Christian Hackenberg worked on mechanics against Jets OC’s advice

This past off-season newly acquired Raiders QB Christian Hackenberg — still with the Jets at the time — spent 60 sessions with his personal QB coach Jeff Christensen on shortening his throwing motion. The biggest knock coming out of college was Hackenberg lacked the proper mechanics so he worked diligently this off-season to try and fix it. Sounds good, right?

Problem is his head coach Todd Bowles didn’t know about it and his offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates advised against it fearing he wouldn’t be ready by May OTA’s, this according to a report from USA Today. If true, this provides some extra insight in what went wrong between the Jets former 2nd round pick and the organization who drafted him.

Going against the offensive coordinator on a major change like shortening his throwing motion was a big decision for Hackenberg to make. It shows just how frustrated he must have been in trying to fix his issues in New York and the disconnection between his own ideas and that of his coaching staff. It’s a rare scenario where a player goes so far away from the advice of their coaches, and it was definitely a sign that the relationship was beyond repair.

Hopefully it isn’t a sign of things to come for Christian Hackenberg in Oakland because if there is one sure way to get cut from a Jon Gruden team it’s completely disregarding his direction. Then again, one would hope that the coaching staff is giving him enough attention that he doesn’t feel like he has to take matters into his own hands.