The rugby league community has been rocked by the revelation that Jarryd Hayne is quitting the game and heading to the US, where he will shop himself around to the 32 teams as a free agent.
This is something that Hayne has been dreaming about for years and he has finally decided to take the leap and give it a crack. All credit to him for taking this risk, but many fear he is living in fantasyland and he will come back a shadow of his former self.
American football is an incredibly technical and nuanced sport. The casual Australian fan often watches the game and thinks it would be very easy to play, a few big fat guys shove each other, skinny fast guys run around the field trying to get open and the quarterback throws the football to them if they do get open.
There is so much more to it than that. Blocking requires significant amounts of technique, running routes and beating cornerbacks are fine arts that can take years to master. On the defensive side of the ball, there are lots of little tricks cornerbacks use to defend against passes and fool quarterbacks into throwing the ball in their direction.
Hayne will not learn these overnight, regardless of what position he plays, which is still yet to be determined. And therein lies the problem for Jarryd Hayne.
Hayne is 26 years of age. If he is to commit to the NFL it will likely take him three to four years before he is fully coming to grips with the sport. This is not Israel Folau switching from league to union, this is a major shift.
He will likely already be in his thirties before fully hitting his stride and at that point it could be too late, he will begin to lose the speed which makes him such an exciting prospect.
We can’t forget that he has already had some major hamstring concerns in the past decade. It will be very interesting to see what Hayne’s 40-yard sprint time is, should he do one, and see how it compares to some of the fastest players in the league.
On top of this, Hayne has already played nine seasons in the NRL. If he was to play during the 2015 NFL season, he would already be slightly above the average age of the NFL player.
His body has played a lot of football over the past few years and he has carried his team throughout this time. His body has taken a beating and there are legitimate concerns that he won’t be able to cope with the rigours of the NFL.
Call me crazy, but I think Hayne’s best option – if the NCAA would allow it, which they never will – is to play college football. The problem for Hayne is that the NFL doesn’t have a reserve grade, a D-League or minor leagues – it’s the NFL or bust.
The only real place for players to develop their game is in college. Unfortunately for Hayne, given the NCAA’s archaic rules, this isn’t even an option for him. If Hayne was to go to college, he could spend three or four years playing at a lower level, learning the game and learning the rules. Yes, he’d be playing for free, assuming he didn’t sell his autograph off, but it would be the base necessary to give him the best opportunity to succeed.
Another hurdle for Hayne to overcome is to figure out is what position to play. Reggie Bush suggests that he has the speed to become a running back, but at 6 foot 2, Hayne is probably a little bit too tall for that position.
It definitely is not out of the question, given Adrian Peterson is 6 foot 1. The position of running back would be much simpler for Hayne to learn and make the transition easier and faster and if he breaks into the open field he could be deadly, but without a dominant offensive line I can see Hayne struggling when there is no space for him to work with.
Perhaps a more appropriate position for Hayne, but much harder to grasp, is wide receiver. Wide receivers are typically tall, speedy and athletic with an ability to go up and reach the ball.
Hayne has the body and raw talent to play at wide receiver. Additionally, he has the pace to be hugely effective in the short passing game. Hayne could be deadly in the screen game. Give him some space and get him one on one with his opposite, and much like Percy Harvin, you’d back Hayne to beat the first defender nine times out of ten.
Let’s not forget that NFL defenders do not have nearly as good technique as rugby league players. Here’s a terrifying thought, Jarryd Hayne returning kickoffs and punts. Again, if he had time and space, he would be breaking at least one tackle more often than not and possibly giving his team a short field to play with.
If Hayne chooses not to play on the offensive side of the ball, his best option would be cornerback, assuming he could learn the intricacies of the position. He has been linked with the Seattle Seahawks after spending time with the team in September and really, there is no better place to learn how to play cornerback.
The Seahawks have revolutionised the position of cornerback in the NFL by focusing purely on big cornerback. Every cornerback on Seattle’s active roster except for Marcus Burley is over 6ft and Hayne would fit in nicely. Unfortunately for Hayne, cornerback is one of the hardest positions in the NFL to learn, by the time he learned the position, his body would be on the decline.
Jarryd Hayne is a rare talent, he is probably the most naturally gifted player in the NRL and he could achieve almost anything if he put his mind to it.
Had someone sat Hayne down as a 15-year-old and gave him a choice of 10-15 sports to choose to specialise in, he would likely have become a superstar in whatever sport he chose. He is that talented.
However, it is incredibly difficult to switch sports to a sport that one has never played before and even more difficult at the age of 26. Hayne has the talent to make it in the NFL, but if he expects to be starting come week one of 2015 he might as well not bother even going.
It will not happen overnight, Hayne has to be willing to toil away for the next three to four years learning how to play the sport at an elite level and even then, I’m not sure if his body will hold up long enough to allow him to become anything more than rotation player.
Twitter: @fromthesheds
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