Washington Football Team: Where Dwayne Haskins ranks among franchise’s biggest busts

Where Dwayne Haskins ranks among busts

Personally, I would rank Haskins as the third-worst first-round pick made by Washington since 1960, but there is plenty of room for debate. By failing to complete his second season with the club, Haskins becomes the third-shortest-tenured first-rounder who actually suited up for the team at some point (thus excluding the likes of Lucas and Davis, who never took the field for Washington).

Oregon defensive back Jim “Yazoo” Smith, taken with the 12th pick in 1968 was released after one season. Smith was actually a promising young player during his rookie season. A broken neck late in his first year ended his career.

Twenty-eight years later, in 1996, Penn State offensive tackle Andre Johnson came to the team late in the first round. Washington actually traded into the first round, giving Dallas a second and third-rounder in order to select Johnson. After a rookie season in which he barely got on the field, Washington released Johnson.

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I do not consider the Yazoo Smith selection a bad pick. That was unlucky. Smith was a good player who suffered an injury.

Johnson, on the other hand, was a bad pick, made all the worse due to the draft capital it cost to get him. He could not play. He was, in my book, a worse selection than Haskins. However, he came at the very end of the first round, as opposed to Haskins, who came in the middle. I would still consider Johnson a slightly worse selection, but it is close.

The other pick that I rank as slightly worse than Haskins was the 1967 selection of Idaho running back Ray McDonald. McDonald is the player whose story most closely resembles that of Haskins.

McDonald was a beast in college. Weighing almost 250 pounds and able to run a sub-10 second 100-yard dash, McDonald led the nation in rushing during his senior year in college. And McDonald was chosen, not so much by the team’s football minds, but by team president Edward Bennett Williams.

After an injury-plagued rookie year and a second season in which he barely saw the field, McDonald was released. New coach Vince Lombardi favored a skinny eighth-round rookie named Larry Brown to McDonald.

By making it through his entire second season, McDonald did outlast Haskins. But he had been relegated to the equivalent of the practice squad for a good part of that sophomore campaign. Haskins had a couple of decent moments on the field for Washington. McDonald really had none.