Washington Football Team: Dwayne Haskins goes unclaimed on waivers

Dwayne Haskins went unclaimed on waivers after his release from the Washington Football Team.

The Washington Football Team released Dwayne Haskins yesterday just shy of two seasons into his rookie contract with the team. Because he was still on a rookie deal, Haskins was subject to the NFL’s waiver system.

It wasn’t expected that any team would claim Haskins, but it was still a source of intrigue.

But now, the waiver wire deadline has come and gone and Haskins has gone unclaimed, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. However, he did also report that there are some teams interested in signing Haskins.

This makes sense. Haskins was an abject failure here in Washington, but he still has undeniable upside and arm talent. If a team can get the former first-round pick by signing him to the practice squad for the rest of the brief season and carrying him on the 90-man roster in 2021, that would be a solid move, as it would be a low-risk, high-reward type of move.

There are several teams that could (and should) be interested in a developmental guy like Haskins, too, so we’ll see if they express any interest in him. They just didn’t claim him off waivers because he can be had much cheaper on the open market than what his first-round contract was worth.

Of course, it’s also possible that teams will sniff around Haskins but won’t want to sign him in the wake of his off-the-field actions. He’s going to have to convince teams that his maturity won’t be an issue moving forward, but it may take time for a team to buy into that enough to give him a chance.

No matter what happens with Haskins moving forward, Washington made a necessary and correct choice. Haskins wasn’t playing well, and the team had to weed him out of the locker room in order to continue to properly build the culture that Rivera has emphasized during his year-long tenure with the team.