News broke Wednesday morning that Dwayne Haskins was being “benched” for Kyle Allen. This comes as a surprise when you look on the surface level, especially after Haskins had his first career 300-yard game, but two factors go into this.
1. No off-season really hurt Dwayne. With COVID, he was not able to be in the building and get the reps he needed to learn the offense. The first four games this year were almost like a preseason for Dwayne. If Dwayne was able to have a preseason to work out the kink, either he’d be further along in his development and you’d see a better product on the field and he would still be starting, or Kyle Allen would have started from day one while Dwayne developed and perfected his craft. This gives Dwayne time to learn and develop his mental and physical skills, and if he does not improve by the time the season is over, you know he’s not the QB for the future. Ron Rivera said in his Wednesday press conference “you need about 5000 reps to learn the offense as a young QB, and Dwayne is nowhere near that”. I think this tweet sums up where Dwayne stands with Rivera:
Ron Rivera says: "This is not an indictment on Dwayne just as an indictment on the situation were in." Says OTAs and real offseason would have helped a lot
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) October 7, 2020
2. The division winnable. If Ron wants to truly change the culture as he said back when he was hired, he would take advantage of this. If you’re developing a QB while losing games along the way, you’re not setting the best precedent for the culture. Kyle Allen has a familiarity with the system that neither Dwayne nor Alex Smith has, and he gives you the best chance to win. He knows how to get the offense down the field and score points. He does not have the skillset Dwayne has, but if arm talent alone was all you needed to be a starting QB in football, Jamarcus Russell would still be in the NFL.
3. Dwayne at the end of the day was not playing well. Not saying he was necessarily playing BAD, but he was not playing well. Outside of the Cleveland game where Dwayne lost the game single-handedly, he was just treading water. It’s not fair to the other players who want to win and take advantage of the division at hand. Dwayne was not able to go on the field and run their whole offense that Scott Turner wants to, so that is limiting them on offense, which is why you see them struggling on offense week after week. They’re in the business of winning, and having everyone on the same page is just something you have to do.
I feel like Dwayne Haskins is the victim of the perfect storm.
1. New regime that didn’t draft you
2. New offense with no offseason
3. You can compete right now in a bad NFC East
4. QB2 behind you that is ahead of where you are with understanding and executing the offense— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) October 7, 2020
I do not think this is the end of Dwayne Haskins in Washington unless a deal for a new QB that is better comes up and is too good to refuse. They are building the team to win for the now and allowing Haskins to develop is the smart move at the end of the day. When the news broke, I was not in agreeance with the move, but after hearing coach Rivera talk and explain the reasoning for benching Haskins, it makes sense. The biggest key in this whole situation owner Dan Snyder is allowing Rivera to make the move and is on board with the decison.
