Kyle Flood calls Christian Hackenberg first-round talent

Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood has officially turned heads in calling Penn State Nittany Lions quarterback Christian Hackenberg a first-round talent. Per Greg Pickel of Penn Live, Flood had nothing but good things to say about Hackenberg and Penn State’s program in general.

“There’s no doubt he’s an NFL first-round quarterback,” Flood said.

“They have talented players,” Flood said. “If you give Christian enough time, he can deliver the ball.”

Clearly, Flood has not seen the same Hackenberg the rest of us have this season. Hackenberg has looked like anything but a first-round talent through two games this season, throwing for just 231 yards, a touchdown and an interception while completing just 48.1 percent of his passes. After throwing for 2,955 yards and 20 touchdowns while completing 58.9 percent of his pass attempts as a freshman two years ago, he has taken two giants steps back.

A lot of Hackenberg’s struggles can be attributed to a poor offensive line and a lack of overall talent amongst his receiving corps and Flood’s words could just be his opinion on what Hackenberg is underneath the struggles, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that based on his performance this year, he is far from a first-round talent.

In fact, it would be surprising to see Hackenberg get drafted at all at this point.

Penn State is set to play Flood’s Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Piscataway on Saturday night.

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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports

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