Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins has made improvements in recent weeks. Don’t be blind to the development.
It’s easy to get down as a fan of the Washington Redskins. They have not exactly been a winning franchise. In fact, the Redskins have made the postseason just five times since 1993. They have two playoff wins, one in 1999 and the other in 2005. That’s bad. Really bad.
With that in mind, fans have two major routes they can go: Either they can try to look at the positive of every situation and hope for the best or they can get really negative once anything bad happens and expect things to go the way they always seem too. Honestly, both make sense. The way I see it, it’s hard to get positive about something, especially when even the slightest thing goes wrong, after seeing so many bad things happen to the Redskins.
At the same time though, it’s crazy to give up on anything or anyone after just a few games. Shouldn’t fans have learned patience by now? It’s not like fans haven’t seen terrible times, so why not endure it for a few more games if it could lead to big things in the future? So both sides definitely have good arguments.
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That being said, there are the fans that seem to be actively looking for the negatives. This is never truer than with quarterbacks. Let’s not pretend like we don’t all know the fans that were practically begging for Robert Griffin III to fail. Every little thing was the biggest issue for them. There were also fans just like this for Kirk Cousins.
I would argue there were like fans like this for the John Beck era or the Tony Banks era, maybe even the Patrick Ramsey and Danny Wuerffel eras as well. But those quarterbacks likely didn’t have many positives to begin with.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Some fans tend to get really negative and are blind to the positives.
There were times when there were zero positives though. So this time, don’t overlook them. Did you see those names mentioned above? There are a ton more. Rex Grossman anyone? Shane Matthews? I can keep going but I don’t want to completely destroy Redskins’ fans.
The point is, there were way too many times when Washington was just a black hole. Especially at the quarterback position. So don’t be blind to something great that could be blossoming before your very eyes.
Yes, Dwayne Haskins has had his growing pains. However, he’s a 22-year old quarterback who played just one year in college and is now through just seven games (five starts) in the NFL. He’s also made strides recently. Haskins holds on to the ball too long sometimes, sure. However, this gets blown out of proportion. Sometimes, the line simply is not holding.
He misses his receivers quite often with bad throws. But he’s also reduced the number of bad throws by a large margin in recent weeks.
He is not putting up big numbers, to be sure. However, look at his weapons. The trio of Terry McLaurin, Kelvin Harmon and Steven Sims Jr. could grow into something really great for Washington. Right now, they are three rookies with a rookie quarterback. McLaurin is the only one that would be getting significant time on basically any other NFL teams. (Again this is not a shot at them, the Redskins really could have something great with those three if they let them grow.)
The tight ends have been non-existent as well. Haskins has had zero time with Jordan Reed or Vernon Davis. So Jeremy Sprinkle (also relatively new to the NFL in his third season now) is the starting tight end, someone who had seven career catches coming into the season.
The line is nothing to write home about either. Ereck Flowers might be the most productive lineman this year and very few thought he should have a job at guard to begin the season.
This is the type of supporting cast that people would be using to make excuses for elite quarterbacks. Somehow, certain fans think Haskins should look elite with them in a run-heavy offense.
What about the positives? Dwayne Haskins has shown he has incredible arm strength and that the touch on his throws could be coming along. Remember that crazy throw he had to McLaurin that got called back a couple of weeks ago? How about the two late drives against the Detroit Lions to pick up Washington’s second win of the season?
Haskins has now had multiple drives late in close games where he looked absolutely fantastic. That’s composure far beyond his years.
By no means is Haskins is perfect and there’s no certainty he will be a superstar in the future. However, he’s progressing. He’s looking better as he gets more game time. And you shouldn’t give up on someone after just a few starts.
Dwayne Haskins is the quarterback of the Washington Redskins. Like they’ve done for decades now, they’re are struggling. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Give the rookie a chance to get them out to the other side.