Washington Football Team must let Dwayne Haskins sink or swim

It’s time for the Washington Football Team to let Dwayne Haskins sink or swim.

Late in the third quarter of the Washington Football Team’s 20-15 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, quarterback Dwayne Haskins had thrown 30 passes for a total of 146 yards. And that stat, more than anything else, is why Dwayne Haskins is not the starting quarterback of the Washington Football Team.

To put those numbers into context, that works out to about 4.9 yards per throw. Among the 35 qualified starting quarterbacks in the NFL this season, the worst yards per throw figure belongs to Sam Darnold at 5.8. Almost a full yard per throw better than what Haskins had managed. From the worst statistical passer in the league.

Haskins also had two bad interceptions. The first was a bad throw. Haskins was moving and he is not accurate when on the move. The second was simply a poor read.

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But I have maintained that Haskins biggest problem is not his occasional poor throw or poor decision. His biggest problem is that yards per throw number. Haskins simply has not shown the ability to make big plays. In the NFL, in 2020, you do not win if your QB does not make plays.

This is by no means all Dwayne Haskins’ fault. He has very few weapons with which to work. Logan Thomas has become his security blanket and J.D. McKissic is a talented receiver. But aside from Terry McLaurin, there are no downfield threats. It’s hard to make big plays when you have so few playmakers.

The play-calling seems much less ambitious when Haskins is in the game as well. You might argue that is precisely because of those bad interceptions but is an interception 40 yards downfield really that much worse than three 2-yard throws to Logan Thomas followed by a punt?

Washington has a very good defense and against Seattle, playing short-handed, they continued their season-long trend of getting better and better as the game wore on.

And then, at the end, things changed for Haskins. Beginning with the first TD drive late in the third-quarter, Haskins’ yards per throw rose to over 7. Low 7’s – that’s Kyler Murray territory. Tom Brady territory. And with that kind of production, Washington almost won a game that they seemed to have no business winning. They just needed to make one more big play at the end.

That is what will define the remainder of the season, and that is true whether it is Haskins or Alex Smith under center. If it ends up being Haskins, he has to take a few shots, and makes a few big plays.

I don’t really care about the mistakes. If Dwayne Haskins gets the call, it’s time to let him sink or swim.