Washington Football Team: Three keys to Dwayne Haskins’ improvement

No. 2 – Become more efficient in the passing game

You can chalk this up to several things, but in an analytical league like the NFL has now become, this is a huge priority.

You can describe efficiency in the passing game in a multitude of ways: Efficient as a deep thrower, meaning you are at least average when it comes to throwing balls down the field; efficient on third down, meaning you convert at a league average or better rate; even being efficient despite the amount of time you have in a clean pocket.

Dwayne Haskins must improve in all areas of efficiency in the coming weeks. Washington is one of the worst offenses in the league on third down. A lot of that falls on the shoulders of Dwayne Haskins, as the team is often put in third and long situations where the quarterback has to use his arm to move the chains.

There was a chart put out there by Washington Football Team reporter Nicki Jhabvala from the Washington Post, where she broke down Dwayne Haskins’ play when he has more or less than two seconds to throw the football. The numbers are eye-popping (Through two weeks, not three).

Like the majority of NFL quarterbacks, the more time you give them with the football, the better they become. The more time they have with the clean pocket, the better the outcome is for the offense.

In Haskins’ case, that couldn’t be more wrong. In situations where Haskins took less than or equal to two seconds to throw the football, he ranked among the best quarterbacks in the league as of September 21st.

Before the Browns game, he was completing nearly 95 percent of his throws, with an immaculate passer rating of 142.4.

The numbers fall immensely once he takes more than two seconds to throw. He ranks between 25th and 33rd in every major statistical category in that case. In the NFL, an analytical league, a passing league that emphasizes being able to throw the ball down the field and get it into the hands of your skill players, that’s a huge red flag.

The Washington Football Team’s offense, due to Dwayne Haskins’ inability to use time efficiently, is stunted. They cannot expect to win ball games without an ability to take advantage, and be efficient when they have time to throw the football.

While many may say Washington can adopt a philosophy similar to the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints, taking advantage of the first two levels of the field, not being much of a vertical offense, that will only work if there’s a proven QB under center. That style of play will only work if given supreme weapons that fit that offense, and even then, both New England and New Orleans are offenses that cannot will you back into games after trailing by one or two possessions often in the modern NFL.

Washington’s offense, at this stage, due to the inefficient play of Dwayne Haskins, is very vanilla. While they should look to surround Haskins with much more help, it still doesn’t change the fact that Haskins struggles to create for this offense outside of perfect situations. He hasn’t shown the ability to give the offense much to work with, outside of a slant or a bubble screen.

A huge key to improvement for Dwayne Haskins is becoming more efficient with time. He has to take advantage of the times where he is given a clean pocket and continue to embrace situations where he’s given a little time to throw. Overall, trusting in his weapons, improving his mechanics, trusting the process, and making the correct throw.