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Washington Football Team Reality Checks: Week 16 vs. Panthers

By Tim Payne

LANDOVER, MARYLAND - OCTOBER 11: Alex Smith #11 of the Washington Football Team throws before a game against the Los Angeles Rams at FedExField on October 11, 2020 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MARYLAND - OCTOBER 11: Alex Smith #11 of the Washington Football Team throws before a game against the Los Angeles Rams at FedExField on October 11, 2020 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /
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CLEVELAND, OHIO – SEPTEMBER 27: Dwayne Haskins #7 of the Washington Football Team looks to throw a pass against the Cleveland Browns during the first quarter in the game at FirstEnergy Stadium on September 27, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OHIO – SEPTEMBER 27: Dwayne Haskins #7 of the Washington Football Team looks to throw a pass against the Cleveland Browns during the first quarter in the game at FirstEnergy Stadium on September 27, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

1. The Reality Is, Ron Rivera deserves the benefit of the doubt on the Haskins situation.

Rivera gave Haskins a chance to start early in the season. Then he benched Haskins after four weeks of ineffective play. Fans and the media barbecued him for “short-term” focus and failure to think about the future of the team.

Subsequently, the offense has dramatically improved in terms of consistency, while Haskins has had multiple lapses in judgment and compliance related to Covid protocols. With Haskins’ indiscretions again this week, many fans were calling for Haskins to be cut immediately and are angry that he was only fined and stripped of his captaincy.

But the reality is, only Rivera knows whether cutting Haskins and pinning the team’s playoff hopes on a hobbled Alex Smith or one of the practice squad QBs would have been more damaging to his overall culture rebuild than the route he took. Make no mistake, Haskins put Rivera in a very tough spot, and only time will tell whether he made the right choice.

My Prediction: I bet Rivera got his true team captains (McLaurin, Scherff, Moses, Way, Everett, etc) and laid out the options for how to handle Haskins, and they agreed that letting him stay on the team was in the best interest of the team for now; 52 other guys want to make the playoffs, and he’s better than Montez or Heinicke.

But Haskins won’t be wearing No. 7 in Washington after this season.

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