Even though former Ohio State and current Washington Football Team quarterback Dwayne Haskins has been benched in favor of Kyle Allen, his head coach Ron Rivera still has belief in him, or so he says.
“By no means have I given up on him,” Rivera said.
Reports surfaced earlier this week that Haskins practice and study habits prepping for games wasn’t necessarily up to snuff. That, in combination with perceived slow development and a losing record for Washington through the first four games prompted Rivera to go a different direction.
“There are things Dwayne was still learning to do that Kyle knows in terms of communicating with the offensive line,” Rivera said. “It’s something as we go through this and progress, Dwayne will learn and see how these things are done.”
To learn though, Haskins will need more playing time. Maybe this is a ploy to jump-start the team and let the former Buckeye quarterback learn outside of the fire, or maybe it’s just coach-speak. We won’t really know until things progress the rest of the season.
Rivera says that he hasn't given up on Dwayne Haskins just yet, so might he consider a return to the QB1 spot if the playoff dreams fail? https://t.co/PNLVBDMIB5
— Washington Wire (@Washington_Wire) October 9, 2020
If Washington’s win/loss record doesn’t improve much after the change under center, it would make sense to go back to Haskins to continue his growth with less pressure to perform. It’s at least a bit curious though that Rivera relegated him to third-string behind even Alex Smith. That wouldn’t seem to jive with any sort of go-forward process, but maybe there’s a secret way of doing things in Washington nobody is aware of.
Unfortunately for the franchise that’s endured a bad patch of losing recently, unless there’s more talent available at the skill positions and on the offensive line, a quarterback made in a lab wouldn’t have much of a chance at looking like the answer to the franchise’s issues. It’s hard to believe Allen or Smith is the answer either.
So, we’ll wait and see for Haskins’ sake I guess.
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