The Washington Football Team has benched Dwayne Haskins after just four games.
It was announced on Wednesday that the Washington Football Team was benching former first-round pick Dwayne Haskins after only four games this season. Haskins was the No. 15 overall pick in 2019 and Ron Rivera has apparently seen enough of him less than two years into his career.
While it’s understandable to be frustrated by the lack of offense, that isn’t all on Haskins. He’s started just 11 games and hasn’t had much talent to work with in any of those 11 starts. His best receiver is Terry McLaurin, who played with him at Ohio State. But outside of that, it’s been slim pickings for the former Buckeyes signal-caller.
Also, Haskins’ numbers haven’t even been all that bad, especially for a quarterback still in just his second year. He struggled when he was first thrust into action last season, but pieced it together near the end of the season. In his final two games of 2019, Haskins threw for four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
In his four games in 2020, Haskins threw for 939 yards, four touchdowns, and three interceptions, so the numbers aren’t amazing, but they’re not terrible either. As I touched on earlier though, the weapons haven’t been there for Haskins and that’s what Ron Rivera and company are going to further discover when Kyle Allen takes over at quarterback.
Washington is only a game out of first place in the NFC East, so maybe Rivera thinks Allen gives him the best chance at contending for the division title. However, it just seems ludicrous to give up on Haskins after only 11 starts. This is a guy who threw 48 touchdowns and just eight picks at Ohio State in 2018 and was looking like he was piecing things together at the end of the 2019 season.
With no preseason this summer due to COVID-19, it only makes sense that Haskins would be slow to start off, but he hasn’t been the only reason Washington has struggled. It’s decisions like these that prove why the Football Team has such a tough time staying relevant and getting over the hump.
Will Washington decide to completely move on from Haskins or is this a temporary benching? Will they look toward the draft to find their next hopeful at the quarterback spot? Who knows at this point honestly, as no one is ever really certain of what Washington is thinking.