Even after a 300-yard performance, Washington QB Dwayne Haskins found himself on the bench as a third-string player.
Washington QB Dwayne Haskins finished with a career-best 314 passing yards while completing 71% of his passes in a 31-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. He also had a rushing touchdown.
Fast forward to this week, Haskins was not only benched, but demoted to second-string quarterback as Kyle Allen took over the starting job and Alex Smith, after a long road to recovery, became the team’s backup.
Allen wound up with an injury in Week 5 against the Los Angeles Rams before Smith came in and replaced him late in the first half before Washington eventually fell 30-10, dropping their record to 1-4 on the year with four consecutive losses.
Once again, a quarterback crisis in the nation’s capital. Once again, drama not far from an organization that has gone through so much this offseason with workplace harassment and changing of the name, and now they deal with a quarterback controversy.
But many are still wondering as to why Haskins was benched after putting up a career-high performance? Well, there may be an explanation.
Dwayne Haskins was benched for bragging about his stats in a loss.
According to a report from Yahoo Sports’ Nick Ashooh, members of the Washington Football Team were not pleased about Haskin’s antics following the loss to Baltimore.
"“And this happens, to me, all the time. Like you see this a lot, so I took nothing out of it. But I know some people were like, ‘Why is he so happy? They just lost to the Ravens.’ Well, apparently in the locker room, he’s heard by players talking about his stat line and that he threw for 300 yards.”"
If indeed this was the case, this only adds to a disaster for Haskins, and another chapter in the Ohio State QB Nightmare in the NFL. This isn’t the first time that a QB from THE school in Ohio has had both trouble with the physicality on the field or an attitude problem that derailed their careers.
Guys like Terrelle Pryor and Troy Smith had no issues off the field and were stars like Haskins at Ohio State. In the NFL however, they struggled at times to catch on to the pace of the game and as a result, it wasn’t good.
On the flip side, players like Bobby Hoying and Art Schlichter has tremendous success as a Buckeye but let their egos get in the way of their productivity on the field in the pros. Schlichter even had a gambling issue that led to a permanent ban.
Dwayne Haskins is in no way a bust just yet, nor should he be cut. He’s only in his second year. But head coach Ron Rivera just sent him a strong message. Stat’s don’t matter unless the team wins the game. It’s a hard lesson to learn but if Haskins wants to get back on the field, it’s best he learn it fast and apply it.