Kansas City Chiefs Scouting Report: Christian Hackenberg
The Kansas City Chiefs have two second-round picks available to them in the 2016 NFL Draft. Will they use one of those two picks on a quarterback?
The KC Chiefs aren’t a team known for drafting and developing quarterbacks. They haven’t selected a quarterback in the first three rounds in 11 years (Brodie Croyle) and haven’t taken one in the first round since 1983 (Todd Blackledge).
Could all of that change in the second round of the draft? If the Chiefs are thinking of taking their next signal caller, it very well could be Christian Hackenberg out of Penn State.
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Hackenberg is considered to be the fifth-best quarterback prospect in this year’s draft, and three of the guys ahead of him on the “big board” are now off the board after one round. The only better quarterback prospect than Hackenberg is Connor Cook, who has some leadership question marks.
Combine Results
- 40-yard dash – 4.78 seconds*
- Vertical jump – 31.0 inch
- Broad jump – 114.0 inch
- 3-cone drill – 7.04 seconds*
*= Combine top performer
Combine results courtesy of NFL.com’s Draft Tracker
Suggesting that the Chiefs go after Christian Hackenberg isn’t a knock on Alex Smith by any means. I like Smith, and I feel like the Chiefs have proven they can win with him, but it’s time to look ahead, and Hackenberg can help this team years down the road.
Hackenberg has the perfect NFL quarterback build, and as you can see from his combine results, he’s pretty quick for his size. That mobility and size is one of the reasons why I could see Kansas City going after the Nittany Lion.
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Hackenberg finished his college career with 8,457 passing yards, 48 touchdowns, and 31 interceptions. While he could have benefited from staying in school for another year, Hackenberg decided to forego his senior season and enter a fairly weak quarterback class this year.
The Kansas City Chiefs also have question marks at the backup quarterback position. They lost Chase Daniel who is widely regarded as the elite backup quarterback in the league (his paycheck seems to support that statement). They have Aaron Murray and Tyler Bray in the fold to take the reigns as the backups currently, but both are untested.
Hackenberg would be equally untested, but he’s in a position where he doesn’t have to take the reigns as franchise quarterback right away. He can sit and learn behind Alex Smith while he improves his game and gets repetitions with the rest of the team.
Next: Chiefs Top Five Quarterbacks EVER
Like it or not, teams winning seasons begins and ends with who they have quarterbacking their teams. Finding a stable NFL quarterback isn’t easy and it’s always a risk trying to find that one guy that can jump from college to the NFL and be elite or even consistently average. See the Oakland Raiders prior to Derek Carr. Also see the Cleveland Browns.
Well what do you think Kansas City Chiefs fans? Do you like the prospect of taking Christian Hackenberg? What round would you take him in? Is there another quarterback you’d like the Chiefs to work on? Let us know your thoughts in the comments’ section below.