Hackenberg impresses at Penn State pro day

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Something was different about Christian Hackenberg.

Perhaps it was that the former Penn State quarterback felt more comfortable being back in Happy Valley. Or maybe he felt a greater sense of urgency knowing it was his last chance to show his skills to a large gathering of NFL scouts.

Whatever it was, at Penn State's pro day on Thursday, Hackenberg looked like a much different signal-caller than he had at last month's NFL combine, during which he struggled in the throwing session.

On Thursday, scouts from 31 of the 32 NFL teams looked on as Hackenberg threw close to 60 passes. He showed off improved footwork and accuracy - particularly on the short and medium throws, which had been his weaknesses. Of the few passes that fell incomplete, only two were off-target.

Jordan Palmer, the former NFL quarterback who has been training Hackenberg, led him through the different route combinations, which the 21-year-old created specifically for pro day.

During Palmer's last two months training Hackenberg in Dana Point, Calif., Palmer said the two have worked mostly on mechanics.

"This has nothing to do with a coaching staff anywhere. When you're a college quarterback, you've got school. You've got practice. You've got weights. You've got study hall. You've got all of these things, so focusing on your mechanics becomes this tiny little sliver in the pie of what your day is," Palmer said. "So when mechanics becomes a giant piece of the pie, that allows you to do things consistently."

"It has nothing to do with whether he did it right before or wrong before," Palmer added. "He just didn't do it very much."

When the workout was over, Hackenberg headed for the door, declining to answer questions from reporters.

But Palmer, the younger brother of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, stuck around to review Hackenberg's performance.

Palmer said he believes many who have criticized Hackenberg - including NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock, who last month said "the tape is really bad" - would soon be proven wrong.

"I think people like Mayock who have been on [Hackenberg] are going to start getting some tough questions when this tape goes around the league and the people who were here today start talking about what they saw," Palmer said. "I think you're going to start hearing a lot of buzz around Christian, being talked about in a different way than he was talked about two or three weeks ago."

The other NFL hopefuls at Penn State's pro day included defensive linemen Austin Johnson, Anthony Zettel, and West Chester native Carl Nassib.