Rainy Day

We don't know whether Christian Hackenberg will become a four-year quarterback at Penn State just happy to hear his named called at the 2017 or a three-and-done star drafted early enough to walk acro s the draft stage in 2016. But a month before the Nittany junior embarks on his third season as a starter, opinions on the matter couldn't be louder.Or more diverse.He's been called a potential by former president Matt Millen, who played at Penn State, and NFL Media analyst Charles Davis , as well.When it comes to physical skills, it's no wonder he's drawing attention. At 6-foot-4 and 228 pounds, he has prototypical pro size for the position. He can throw with touch or velocity, and has a delivery and release that shouldn't need much, if any, retooling. In short, he pa ses the eye test with ease.Unle s, of course, those eyes glance Shaquille Harrison Jersey at the stat sheet, where Hackenberg opinions begin to polarize.He threw all of four touchdown pa ses in Big Ten play last season. Ohio State's J.T. Barrett, by contrast, threw 21. Hackenberg threw 15 interceptions and completed just 55 percent of his pa ses, and Pro Football Focus rated him the . It was a clear regre sion from his freshman season in 2013, when he threw for nearly 3,000 yards and posted a much more respectable TD-INT ratio of 20-10.For Hackenberg detractors, he's just another college quarterback with a long way to go in his development. For his defenders, the Nittany ' offensive line absorbs much of the blame. Hackenberg took a startling 44 sacks last year, the most of any quarterback in the FBS, accounting for 297 yards in lo ses.That's three football fields of backwards.His offensive line was young, his wide receivers even younger, and a pedestrian rushing attack put Hackenberg in so many third-and-long situations, his pocket was often set up for failure.Penn State coach James Franklin is quick to defend his quarterback, and downright awful pa s protection will no doubt be the primary focus of fall camp in Happy Valley this month. But Hackenberg himself isn't blamele s in the sack department. When the Nittany ' offensive line did hold up, Hackenberg held the ball far too long at times, showing little sense of when to throw the ball away. is one example. , an even more egregious refusal to get rid of the ball.Some quarterbacks hold the ball too long because they are afraid to throw a risky pa s, or don't see the field well enough. Former Alabama quarterback , as a freshman, held it a bit too long because he was too determined to find an open man downfield for bigger yardage and was le s willing to check down to a dump-off throw. He grew out of that tendency and went on to win two national titles. There is a fine line between a quarterback showing patience in the pocket while waiting for receivers to come open, and showing no sense for the oncoming rush and the value of a throwaway.Whatever the reason for Hackenberg, it's a correction he must make this season if he hopes to advance his performance and, by extension, his draft status.But it's the improvement of the players around him -- particularly up front -- that will be nece sary for NFL scouts to gain a truer sense of what Hackenberg can do, and perhaps more importantly, what he can't.*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter *. Toni Kukoc Jersey