Wednesday morning pops up and before you have had your morning coffee or tea you get the alert, “Breaking News from Ashburn.” A quarterback change as the backup is now the starter, the former starter is now third string, and the third string is now the backup. Seems like a recurring theme from Washington no matter the nickname. However this wasn’t 2013 with Kirk Cousins and Robert Griffin III. This wasn’t 2014 or 2015 with Colt McCoy, Cousins, and Griffin. No this was yesterday, under yet another regime in Ashburn. The demotion of Dwayne Haskins from starter to bench was a major move. Haskins to third string and the activation of Alex Smith is an even bigger concern. Not only was Haskins benched, his leadership of the team was cut from under him.
Now let me start by saying this, Haskins was playing nowhere near an elite level. He had a couple of decent games and two poor games. Cleveland game was a bad performance in a game that was very winnable. That game was eerily similar to his first game experience against the New York Giants last season. Bad throws and bad reads abound. However he bounced back with a solid game against a Super Bowl contender Baltimore Ravens, notching his first 300 yard NFL performance. That is exactly what you want to see from a young player, the ability to bounce back. And yet three days later Haskins is all but finished in Washington.
Benching a professional athlete is part of the territory of the job because this is a business. However businesses have goals, both short term and long term for the betterment of all involved. When Ron Rivera arrived he preached building a culture of winning, that this was a long rebuild. The release of Adrian Peterson signaled that this team was going young. That these young players would get a chance to play and develop and work through mistakes. Apparently four games was enough to decide that Haskins was a detriment to the team.
If winning now was the goal then Allen should have started from day one. Or sign Cam Newton or Teddy Bridgewater and try and win the division. Now that the division is in shambles, Washington wants to pivot to win now mode. If Dallas or Philadelphia were 3-1 does Haskins still start this Sunday? Or if Haskins had won one more game would that be the case also? So if players are being benched then why has nothing been done to other under performing players? The highest paid player on the defense has also been the worst player on defense, fellow captain Landon Collins, has not been mentioned once by any coach. What about Troy Apke? Geron Christian? Logan Thomas? Wes Martin? Dontrelle Inman? Nope just Dwayne Haskins. And yes the quarterback gets the most scrutiny than any other position in sports. But Haskins isn’t winning or losing games on his own. He is not the only reason this team is 1-3.
Allen is a capable quarterback and a good guy. He like all other players want to play and I wish him the best. However Ron Rivera put pressure on his shoulders which isn’t exactly fair. Rivera basically said that these games are winnable coming up and Allen can win them. Now if Rivera is just as hard on Allen if he struggles then good, being consistent. If Allen is given time to work through issues then Rivera never gave Haskins a fair shake. Riverboat Ron has gone all in on this season, let’s just hope the short term play does’t end up having Washington going broke down the road.
