Washington Redskins: Dwayne Haskins’ rough debut cause for concern?

Dwayne Haskins made his NFL debut in Week 4 for the Washington Redskins and it didn’t go particularly well. Should fans be worried about the quarterback?

Following the Washington Redskins‘ third-straight loss to begin the 2019 season, head coach Jay Gruden was adamant that Case Keenum, not first-round rookie Dwayne Haskins, was his starting quarterback. Midway through the second quarter of their Week 4 tilt against the Giants, though, that sentiment changed.

For the final drive of the first half, Haskins replaced Keenum under center for the Washington offense and actually led them to their first points of the game (a field goal). And it wasn’t hard to see why Gruden made the change as Keenum was downright awful to start the day for the Redskins.

After throwing an interception on the first drive of the game, Keenum led Washington to just 17 yards of offense over the next three drives. That unquestionable prompted the switch at quarterback and, again, Haskins put points on the board. However, those were his only points of the day and he showed his green behind the ears even in that drive, as well as throughout the rest of his outing.

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On that first drive of his NFL debut, Haskins largely dinked and dunked when he threw the ball. In fact, his longest play of the drive was actually a 14-yard scramble down to the New York 1-yard line. Just one yard away from a touchdown, though, Haskins couldn’t make anything happen, throwing two incomplete passes sandwiching an Adrian Peterson loss of two yards, thus leading to the field goal.

It only got worse for Haskins from there. He threw three interceptions in the second half, one of which was returned for a Giants touchdown. The 15th overall pick finished the game going 9-of-17 for 107 yards with no scores and three interceptions in a demoralizing 24-3 loss to a division rival.

The reason that Gruden has been so strongly in favor of Keenum over Haskins has been his proclamation that the rookie wasn’t ready. And going up against a Giants defense and secondary that has been torched all season and producing that disappointing of an effort only furthered that point for the head coach.

As a result, Redskins fans might be concerned about Haskins’ future. After all, we’ve seen rookie quarterbacks such as Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and his Week 4 counterpart Daniel Jones take over and have success right away. Thus, it might be alarming to see Haskins struggle so mightily in his first taste of action.

There should be no alarm sounding in the nation’s capital, though. Haskins isn’t ready but that’s not an issue. In truth, it makes sense that he wouldn’t be.

Haskins was just a one-year starter at Ohio State before entering the 2019 NFL Draft. While that one season was incredibly productive and resulted in him being a Heisman Trophy finalist, that means he doesn’t have the repetitions that are ultimately necessary to be ready for pro defenses. He needs time to develop, adjust and progress as a player before he’s ready.

The tools have always been there with Haskins — they were evident in Columbus and in his pre-draft evaluation. And they haven’t gone anywhere since. Though Gruden may have his faults, he’s clearly right in regards to his quarterback situation. Haskins’ debut showed us as much but, if Gruden is given his way, the rookie will remain as the backup and be given the time he needs to develop in a manner that isn’t baptism by fire on a frankly bad Redskins team.