There’s no arguing that Washington Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins has had a number of struggles in his young NFL career — they were on display for everyone to see in 2019. He misread protections and overthrew balls, and he failed to get into the endzone more than a handful of times.
What is up for debate, however, is just how much of Haskins’ failures in his rookie season were actually his fault. The production, yes, is controlled by him and him only. But the people he had around him, by no choice of his own, never set him up to succeed.
“So it’s the quarterback’s fault?” Haskins college coach Urban Meyer said, via NFL.com. “Nevermind the fact that their coach got fired, the place is a mess, there’s this going on, there’s this going on, this going on. A lot of stuff I heard from behind the scenes — cause, once again I have several players there — yet it’s Dwayne’s fault.”
There is a reason that Haskins was drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft, and Meyer knows that. The two had just come off of a great season at Ohio State, where Haskins had broken school records for passing, throwing 50 touchdowns on the season. Meyer has seen first hand what the kid can do when given the chance to succeed, and that’s what he thinks was the main issue with the 2019 Redskins.
“I hate to be so simplistic on this, but you better surround him with some really good players,” Meyer continued. “The NFL is amazing to me, [in] that the minute a team, they draft a quarterback, they put him on a very bad team or there are a lot of culture issues. Which, I don’t want to start throwing stones, but I do know. I talk to my guys. I talk to a lot of these players. So it’s the quarterback’s fault now that their coach got fired after what, [Week 5]. They were in complete disarray and it’s the quarterback’s fault now. I wish college was that easy. For some reason it’s not the quarterback’s fault, it’s the coach’s fault. To me, it’s about culture and leadership. You want Dwayne to be a great player? Surround him with some really great players. Surround him with a really elite culture.”
Step one of the culture change process took place during the season when Jay Gruden was fired. Step two was checked off when Bruce Allen was canned as well. Step three came days later when Ron Rivera was hired, and the ball is now rolling in the right direction. There’s no telling if a handful of months is enough time to reset the culture in Washington, but we at least know that Haskins is now being set up to succeed, and the coaching staff is adamant about getting solid players around him who can help shoulder some of the load, and some of the blame.
