Why the Washington Football Team benched Dwayne Haskins

This is why the Washington Football Team decided to bench Dwayne Haskins.

By the time this is published, news will have broken that the Washington Football Team has benched quarterback Dwayne Haskins in favor of third-year backup Kyle Allen. Alex Smith will take over the second-string role in WFT’s Week 5 match-up with the Los Angeles Rams. By the time this is published, a lot of opinions will have already been voiced.

My assumption is that most will be in favor of the move. That is not a very bold take. Fans are fickle and the most popular player on any team is the backup quarterback. The grass is always greener, you know. If the starter has a track record of success, he may have won a greater share of fan support, but such is not the case with Haskins.

Indeed, Haskins’ relationship with the D.C. area is a tricky one. He is a local product and as such, gets a little more love than an outsider. On the flip side, after seeming to embrace the area with his initial commitment to the University of Maryland, he then changed course and went to out-of-state powerhouse Ohio State. He had his reasons. It was not the wrong choice. But for local fans, it still stung.

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His arrival in Washington was accompanied by all the right sound bites, but there was also the persistent story that he really wanted New York, and was angry that the Giants chose Daniel Jones over him. Again, a little bit of a bad taste.

Now his tenure in DC may be over almost before it began. Stranger things have happened, but it sure seems unlikely that Dwayne Haskins will ever regain the starting job in Washington. Were there just one QB ahead of him, perhaps. But now there are two. Again, stranger things have happened, but …

Those who never believed in Haskins often pointed to the one-year phenom effect. Haskins started one year at Ohio State and was exceptional. So, was he going to be Cam Newton or Mark Sanchez? Both had similar college careers. Was he going to be Akili Smith or Kyler Murray? Ryan Tannehill or Mitch Trubisky?

I really only have one thing to add to the debate. I disagree with the common wisdom that argued Haskins needed to cut down on his mistakes and take care of the ball. This grew very loud after the Cleveland game, in which he threw three interceptions. But Haskins was not benched after the Cleveland game. He was benched after a loss to a very good Baltimore team in which he did, in fact, take care of the ball.

Dwayne Haskins won’t be starting for Washington because he did not make enough plays. Coaches live with mistakes from young quarterbacks. Hell, they live with mistakes from old quarterbacks. Do you know how many interceptions Brett Favre threw throughout his career? But when the game was on the line, Favre was far more likely to throw touchdowns.

Dwayne Haskins has never shown that ability. How many big plays do you recall him making? Each game this year, I have said to myself “that was a good play” maybe two or three times. And usually, it was a little move in the pocket avoiding a sack and completing a short throw. He has had a decent run or two.

But these have all been plays that even a similarly mediocre young QB like Daniel Jones does routinely several times a game. Compared to other young quarterbacks, be it the more-heralded Kyler Murray or the never-heralded Gardner Minshew, Haskins simply didn’t offer nearly as much productivity.

No big throws. No long scrambles. No miracles.

Dwayne Haskins essentially played with other professional players at Ohio State and he thrived. He has now played in the pros with sub-par talent and he has not been able to raise the level of anyone around him. I believe that Ron Rivera would have put up with interceptions and fumbles, with poor reads and missed throws if he was also seeing even a glimmer of game-altering big plays.

Next. Kyle Allen to start in Week 5 over Dwayne Haskins. dark

The fact is, there were none. And now, it appears that it is too late for Haskins to show whether he ever had it in him. Too late in Washington, at least.

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