Washington Football Team: Did Dwayne Haskins take shots at Ron Rivera while praising Mike Tomlin?

It wasn’t long ago that the Washington Football Team seemingly had their quarterback of the future in place in Dwayne Haskins.

Selected with the No. 15 overall pick back in 2019, Haskins’ tenure in Washington was unfortunately marred by lackluster quarterback play and a lack of incentive to be the best version of himself.

Couple that with some questionable off-field decisions, and it’s easy to see why Ron Rivera benched Haskins just four games into last season, citing the Football Team’s chances of winning the division. Good call, right?

Shortly thereafter, Washington did the inevitable and pulled the plug on the former first-round selection by releasing him in late-December.

Haskins has since found a new home in Pittsburgh, and he’s actually enjoyed a nice start to training camp and the preseason.

Clearly not fond of his time in Washington, Haskins seemingly took shots at Rivera while praising current head coach Mike Tomlin in his latest presser.

Steelers QB Dwayne Haskins appeared to take shots at Football Team head coach Ron Rivera.

Those comments were a long-time coming from Haskins, as Rivera never exactly spoke glowingly of him during their time together. However, what was Rivera supposed to do? Coach him with kid gloves and pretend like what he was doing would lead to him becoming a successful quarterback in the NFL?

Of course not. Could Rivera have gone a little easier on Haskins? Sure, but he shouldn’t apologize for calling it like is, either.

Furthermore, Haskins’ comments don’t really make much sense. Why would a coach of Rivera’s prestige — a two-time AP Coach of the Year who’s made a Super Bowl appearance and has a career .535 win percentage — withhold vital scouting information from the player who’s responsible for running his offense?

That wouldn’t happen unless Rivera was trying to sabotage Haskins, and we all know that wasn’t the case. We get Haskins is a professional competitor, but there was no need to throw shade at his former head coach.

Maybe the Ohio State product should’ve acknowledged that he could’ve done a better job to put Washington in a position to win games? Over two years in DC, he went 3-10, completing 60.1% of his passes for 2,804 yards with 12 touchdowns to 14 interceptions, equating to a lowly 74.4 passer rating.

Don’t get tricked into thinking that we want Haskins to fail. In fact, we’ve very much enjoyed his start to the preseason and hope he’s able to turn his career around. We can just go without him taking shots at Rivera…as if he was the only reason he didn’t pan out with Washington.

Let’s hope Haskins got it all out of his system on Thursday. The divorce is several months old now. There’s no need to precipitate further animosity between the player and franchise. Time to let bygones be bygones.

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