The Washington Football Team has seemingly moved on from Dwayne Haskins following his benching ahead of Week 5. As Washington faced the Los Angeles Rams Sunday, Haskins did not play and wasn’t in attendance for the game due to a stomach virus.
Following the 30-10 loss, Washington head coach Ron Rivera told the Washington Football Team Podcast, he “saw enough” from training camp through the first four games of the season to bench Haskins.
“I saw enough,” Rivera declared. “For 11 weeks he was our starter.”
Rivera further explained Haskins got the first team reps dating back to July in training camp, as he was declared the starting quarterback going into Week 1 of the regular season.
There was no preseason to increase his development before the season. Unfortunately, Haskins struggled in Rivera and his coaching staff’s eyes thus allowing the coach to make a switch to Kyle Allen at starting quarterback and promoting Alex Smith, who was returning for a serious leg injury, to the No. 2 QB.
“It’s interesting because we went through training camp and gave him every rep with the [first team] in terms of trying to develop him and get him ready to go,” Rivera said. “Through the four games we didn’t see what we were looking for. I made the decision to go forward with Kyle [Allen] and Alex [Smith].”
Allen’s first start with Washington didn’t go as smooth as the team was hoping for. He completed 9-of-13 passes for 74 yards, adding a rushing touchdown before he knocked out of the game by a helmet-to-helmet hit in the second quarter.
Smith replaced Allen for the remainder of the game. But Smith didn’t fare any better in his first game in nearly two years. Smith threw for just 37 yards on 17 pass attempts and was sacked six times. Washington’s offense netted a total of 108 yards in the loss.
Despite the struggles, Haskins doesn’t seem to be in Rivera’s future plans. Allen has already been named the starter for Week 6 against the winless New York Giants, if he is healthy. Smith will serve as the backup once again. Haskins is bound to be inactive in each game for the foreseeable future.
Barring injury, Haskins’ 2020 season will conclude with him completing 61% of his passes for 939 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions.
That’s if he remains with Washington as reports suggest a Haskins trade could happen before the Nov. 3 trade deadline.
