Philadelphia Eagles see true colors from Christian Hackenberg in preseason finale

After seeing his awful performance in the preseason finale, it’s safe to say Christian Hackenberg showed his true colors for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Since it would have been pointless to play any of the starters or backups that were guaranteed to be locks for a roster spot, the Philadelphia Eagles finally decided to give Christian Hackenberg a chance to show off his skills during Thursday’s preseason finale against the New York Jets.

Coincidentally, this game happened to be against the team that moved on from the former Penn State star this offseason by trading Hackenberg to the Oakland Raiders, who would eventually go on to part ways with him as well.

Between Carson Wentz continuing to recover from his knee injury and Nick Foles dealing with a few minor injuries as well, Philadelphia wanted to bring Hackenberg on board just in case they needed some extra depth at the position.

Since Nate Sudfeld seemed worthy of being the No. 3 quarterback, Hackenberg was a long shot to make the roster the day he decided to sign with the team. And after seeing how horrendous he looked against the Jets in the preseason finale, the Eagles should be beyond thankful that Hackenberg isn’t their actual starter under center.

Completing just 7 of 16 passes for 69 yards was already painful to watch for Philadelphia fans, but the disappointment hit a whole new level by Hackenberg finishing with three turnovers. Sure, the argument can be made that Hackenberg could have been a lot more productive if he wasn’t playing with the backup players desperately fighting for a roster spot, but also the quarterback has become part of that category.

Ever since he was selected in the second round of the NFL Draft in 2016, Hackenberg has been trying to prove that he has what it takes to be a reliable quarterback in the NFL. But the fact that Hackenberg couldn’t even win the job with the Jets when they were in desperate need of help at the quarterback position shows what kind of player he truly is.

Philadelphia knows they had nothing to lose in signing Hackenberg a few weeks ago, and seeing him struggle the way he did against New York makes them realize just how lucky they are to have their current situation at quarterback.

With Hackenberg no longer in the picture following his recent release, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the quarterback in the NFL since he didn’t exactly make a strong case for himself on Thursday for potential suitors.

Either way, at least Hackenberg is no longer Philadelphia’s problem, and it was great to see them waste little time moving on following their preseason finale.