Dwayne Haskins squandered his opportunity to be the franchise quarterback in Washington. Now, the 23-year old is looking to re-establish a floundering career. He’ll get his chance with the Pittsburgh Steelers after signing a futures contract Thursday.
If he is to develop into the player Washington expected him to be, Haskins will have to eliminate the distractions that plagued him during this time there, according to former teammate Alex Smith.
Appearing on Yahoo Sports NFL podcast with Charles Robinson and Terez Paylor, Smith said he hopes Haskins gets rid of the distractions going on outside football.
“The first thing I hope with Dwayne — and I’ve told him this — is you don’t have a chance until you’ve eliminated a lot of the distractions going on in your life,” Smith said, per Ethan Cadeaux of NBC Sports Washington. “It’s hard as a young player, as a young draft pick, certainly as a quarterback thrust with a lot of weight and expectations.”
Smith believes there was “a lot” of things working against Haskins during his two seasons in Washington. Haskins struggled to get out of his own way, which led to poor play on the field.
Haskins made six starts in 2020. However, after starting the first four games of the season he was benched and demoted to third-string. He violated coronavirus protocols twice. The second led to a $40,000 fine and his captaincy being stripped after attending a party without wearing a mask following a Week 15 loss.
A dreadful start in Week 16 led to his second benching of the season. Ultimately, Haskins’ situation reached a breaking point and Washington released him. His lack of preparation showed when he was on the field.
“You’ve got a lot of voices telling you different things,” Smith said. “In the end, this all comes down to playing well on the football field.
“You have to be able to eliminate all that other stuff, because none of that matters if you can’t go out there and play at a high level,” he continued. “You’ll never be able to develop into the player, into your potential if you don’t eliminate all that stuff as well. So my hope for Dwayne is to do that.”
