Expert reveals why Hayne failed to fire in the NFL

An NFL expert has provided some interesting insight into why Jarryd Hayne never made it in American football.

Trey Wingo, an NFL radio and TV show host watched Hayne closely after he joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2014.

He said a huge part of the rugby league star’s struggles in the NFL came down to his body height when running.

“It’s a different running style in the NFL,” Wingo told Fox Sports.

“You have to have a lower centre of gravity because you don’t want to get hit, you want to make people miss.

“If you look at the way he runs and the way he plays, he’s running upright. See how tall and straight he is?

“That’s an easier target to hit and those guys in the NFL are going to find you.

“That was the biggest problem for him and why it didn’t work for him.

“You really want to have a lower centre of gravity and you don’t want to run so upright which makes you a bigger target.”

At around 190cm tall, of six-foot-two, Hayne is far taller than the majority of running backs in the NFL, who stand under six foot on average.

Some of the greatest NFL running backs of all time are five-foot-10 or under, including Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders and Walter Payton.

Therefore it’s clear Hayne was at a disadvantage with his added height, making it all the more necessary for him to perfect his running height.

Unfortunately, Hayne ended up lower down on the 49ers depth chart, and rarely seeing NFL game time towards the end of the 2014 season.

The lack of game time led Hayne to quit the sport and try his hand at Rugby Sevens.