CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Washington Football Team quarterback Dwayne Haskins is planning to visit with the Carolina Panthers this Monday, per league sources with knowledge of the information.
Haskins, the 15th overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft out of Ohio State, was waived by Washington on Dec. 28, a day after the team's 20-13 loss to the Panthers. He was benched in the fourth quarter for former Carolina quarterback Taylor Heinicke.
The Panthers were among several teams to express interest in signing the quarterback days after Washington had moved on from him. The visit is exploratory in a nature and it does not necessarily mean the team will sign the quarterback.
Carolina is currently in the process of interviewing general manager candidates. While Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has said that he does not want general manager responsibilities, the timing of the visit is interesting considering a new GM has not been hired.
The visit was first reported by NFL Network.
In 16 games played over the past two years, Haskins completed 60.1% of his passes for 2,804 yards, 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He is 3-10 in his 13 starts.
Temple was among a significant number of schools to recruit Haskins, 23, in high school while Rhule and his staff were there. Ohio State head coach and Haskins' former offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at the school, Ryan Day, was an assistant at Temple in 2006 with Rhule.
"Any player in the Northeast, some of those guys that were highly recruited didn't spend too much time talking to us," Rhule said when asked about Haskins initially. "We were maybe not at that level in terms of recruits. I see a lot of guys every week that we recruited, played against or recruited against."
Former Panthers coach Ron Rivera demoted Haskins to the third string behind Kyle Allen and Alex Smith earlier this season. He was also fined twice for COVID-19-related violations, including a $40,000 fine this past week after partying maskless following a loss to the Seattle Seahawks, as reported by The Washington Post. Haskins was also stripped of his captaincy in Week 16, but still started against the Panthers.
In 2018, Haskins was a Heisman Trophy finalist. He finished that season for the Buckeyes completing 70% of his passes for an average of 345.1 yards per game, 50 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
The Panthers' quarterback room consists of Teddy Bridgewater, P.J. Walker, Will Grier and Tommy Stevens. Walker started in the one game Bridgewater missed due to a knee injury. Overall, Bridgewater's performance was up and down in 2020, but his contract makes him an almost lock to be on the roster next season. Rhule declined to confirm that Bridgewater would be the starter in 2021.
"Teddy has to have a tremendous offseason. It's been a long time since he's played an entire year. And part of being a quarterback in this league is being able to withstand the physical toll of the season, and playing your best football at the end of the year," Rhule said this week. "I don't know that I've seen that from him."
Team owner David Tepper said last month that the quarterback position will be evaluated this offseason.
"I think when you get to quarterbacks and NFL in general, you always want to try to figure out, do you have the best that's in the position ... right now," Tepper said. "And that's constant evaluation and re-evaluation of that. And that's what we'll constantly go through."
