The Panthers are showing interest in Dwayne Haskins, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). The former WFT quarterback went unclaimed on waivers this week, leaving him free to sign with any club. 
[RELATED: Washington Cuts Dwayne Haskins]
The Panthers aren’t the only team with intrigue, either. RapSheet hears that “several teams” are kicking the tires on the 2019 first-round pic, though he’s unlikely to sign before the end of the season.
Haskins was atrocious in Washington, but he’s still 23 with plenty of upside. It also helps that Haskins would come at a cheaper rate that his original contract. Haskins was something of a draft darling in ’19, thanks in large part to his tremendous arm strength.
Panthers head coach Matt Rhule is one coach who thinks that he can get the best out of the youngster. The Panthers would also provide him a strong mentor in starter Teddy Bridgewater. Currently, Bridgewater has P.J. Walker and Will Grier as his backups.
Even after moving on from Haskins, Washington will still be responsible for the balance of his contract with $1.8MM (2021) and $2.46MM (2022) base salaries on the books.
Why? He won’t be better than Bridgewater.
Why is that the only standard of whether or not to take a flier on a guy?
I’m sick of hearing Dwayne Haskins needs a “strong mentor” at the QB position. Alex Smith and Case Keenum weren’t good enough for you? Ridiculous.
Well, he hasn’t had a strong mentor in conjunction with a coach who actually wants him. The latter seems a lot more important.
Rivera gave him plenty of chances. I was extremely surprised that he started the last game. Gruden also did as well after Haskins reportedly didn’t learn the playbook. No, he got chances-he just realized it.
Chances aren’t the same as effective coaching. Haskins still managed to look decent down the stretch last year, even though he’s played behind iffy lines and only had one strong weapon. I wouldn’t bet on him having a future as a starter, but I’d bet on him being a worthwhile backup with the right team.
Rivera did not give him plenty of chances, nor did he express any confidence whatsoever even in his opening press conference as coach and refused to commit to him as a starter.
Then, when he struggled four games into the season (his fourth game he actually did NOT struggle and threw for 300+ yards against the Ravens), not only did Rivera bench him, he put him at third on the depth chart.
Jay Gruden hated him as well.
Haskins wasn’t great and shot himself in the foot, but he’s essentially just wrapped a rookie year (16 career games, 13 starts) and his stats were not terrible. Plenty of QBs struggle in their rookie season. It’s insane that everyone is immediately taking the word and side of WFT’s management even though they have potentially the worst record in the sport of developing QBs. Especially when they knew he was a raw talent with inexperience.
Washington has not had a great quarterback in 35 years. They’ve misused and underdeveloped every young QB they’ve had since Joe Theismann. How they get a pass on this (and how Rivera does, when he’s about to go 6-10 and has had three winning seasons out of ten) is beyond me.
I’m sorry, but his stats were not average. They were terrible, especially for a first round pick expected to start significant games. They may be acceptable for a fourth round pick or a free agent, but they certainly would cause concern even then.
Reports about Haskins’ character and work ethic were coming in from when he was drafted. Poor receivers also do not account for Haskins frequently throwing the wrong spot, for constantly staring down receivers (and I really do mean constantly; I truly tried really hard to disprove this point by watching and rewatching several plays of his from a couple of his starts, but he really does it a lot, especially on third down and crucial passing downs), and being completely oblivious to pressure. Haskins rarely climbs the pocket, and when he does, he frequently is caught from behind by a rusher that he ignored. You can give credit to the o-line for that sometimes, but it happens a lot with Haskins. He just simply does not see it, or forgets about it, or has no clock. Even in college you develop that. Heinicke, who came in Sunday with much less experience even than Haskins and certainly fewer physical tools, threw to those same poor receivers, and definitely moved the ball much better than Haskins with free pass rushers teeing off on the offense. Heinicke also spread the ball around more, and at least targeted more receivers.
As for chances, Haskins was a third string QB who got caught in a strip club after another bad loss. That’s enough to cut a disappointing player WITHOUT the COVID concerns. Rivera throughout the year has defended Haskins’ place on the team, though he has indicated his need to play better and earn a starting role. That’s not being hard on him. It’s just the truth. Any other player in that situation would be treated the same. Rivera had every reason to not even let Haskins compete, but he did anyway. Even after all that, Rivera still had Haskins start several games this year. He got chances. And the team tried to win those games. The demotion was not due to hatred of the player, it was based on what Rivera saw attitude wise and on the field.
Consider this: this possibly was the most important regular season game in Rivera’s recent memory. It was against his former team that he coached and had success with for years, and was just fired last year. If he truly did not want to give Haskins a chance to do well in a big game, and truly not giving a chance, there’s no way he starts against the Panthers. Even with all that, and Rivera’s extreme familiarity with the defensive players, Haskins still failed to perform.
The bottom line is that Haskins could have earned more chances. He played poorly. Very poorly. Maybe if he hadn’t, his extracurricular decisions could be excused. But he did not. Poor play, however, is not a character flaw. Not caring about your team is. Not realizing your situation is. Haskins may care about his teammates, I don’t know him personally to say anything there. But he certainly did not care or realize what the situation he was in was. That game Sunday was his last chance, and he blew it. A lot of coaches would not have given him even that, and Rivera is not to blame for Haskins’ career to this point.
Fun fact: Dwayne Haskins’ PFF grade from last year would be the highest of Trubisky’s career or Darnold’s, and people are actually talking about extending Trubisky or giving Darnold another spin with the Jets. Higher than Daniel Jones’ 2019 too. I’m not saying those guys are the standard we should be going by or that PFF grades are the end all, be all, but some guys get a whole lot of chances while Haskins is put in a position to fail and then gets cast out the second he does. And no, I’m not defending his off field choices, but we’ve seen a LOT worse forgiven in this league. It’s fine that Rivera won’t tolerate it, but commenters are a little too eager to throw the guy in a dumpster.
I didn’t say that he deserved to be canned forever. He deserves another chance as much as the next guy. But Haskins definitely deserved to be cut. I do not wish him harm, of course. But he has really disappointed on every level. PFF rankings are pretty useful, but they themselves also acknowledge the downsides of a small sample size. Now, if Haskins gets another shot, he’ll have to earn whatever he gets. With his past troubles, that is likely best, and it’ll settle whether or not it was him or his organization that did him in. Or maybe it’ll prove that he’s changed. Either way, this is the better way.
I’m honestly quite curious what his strengths are, other than arm strength? I really would prefer to see him excel with a different team, but more than that, i’d like to see him change his mindset. It’s not just important for football, but for a lot of things in life. I do not know him personally, of course, so there is a good chance that I’m wrong. But the strip club incident and reports of his laziness (if those are true, of course) do demonstrate a lack of awareness. That needs to change, and even if it’s there, he needs to at least understand the impact that his actions have. I don’t really have a problem with Haskins succeeding. I don’t. I don’t like blaming players in bad situations who may not be wholly responsible for their production, either. But this is one of a few cases where Washington DID give him chances.
Reluctant as those chances may or may not have been, the difference between Haskins and the others is that we at least know the other guys want to be there.
I’m on board with most of that. I’m just hesitant to judge a guy’s character from leaked stories from a team that didn’t want to bother.
Normally the stripper story would be a minor “ehhh” moment for me, but given the situation (not COVID, his team striving to secure a playoff spot and his own poor stock in the organization), it showed a massive lack of good judgement. It is rare for me to just give up on my personal expectations for a player, but not appearing to want to take their job seriously is what will do it. Even if Haskins wanted to be the franchise starter, and loved his teammates, he knew how the organization had hesitation regarding him. That’s not the time to go to the strip club after a bad loss. I do not believe that he’s not smart enough to not realize that. I really do want him to get his head on straight and succeed ultimately, but he bears most of the blame for his career now. That’s basically where we disagree, but it’s good that we could put forth our respective cases and respect your opinion.
Agree
Not to mention Adrian Peterson, who made the news as trying to do so last year as well.
Rather have pj Walker then Haskins
Rhule coached Walker in college and all of this year. I trust his eval. Walker’s fun and I hope he can stick around as a backup, but I think he’d be way too inaccurate and throw way too many interceptions if he started more than a game here or there.
Rather have Haskins then Grier.
It’s stuff like this that clearly indicates to me that NFL talent evaluators are basically just throwing wet socks against a wall to see what sticks, at least insofar as the QB position is concerned.
Smart coaches are constantly taking cheap fliers on failed first rounders to see if they can unlock something the last team couldn’t.
Yeah, you’re right, that’s why it works out so well over the aggregate.
So, with that comment you don’t include Ron Rivera in your “smart coach” bag…..if Rivera soured on him as quickly as he did, there must be underlying reasons why which we have no clue about and won’t through MLB Traderumors either…..while he may stick around the league as a backup, its very possible he will go the route of JaMarcus Russell who also had a strong arm but wasted his NFL chance rather quickly. Smart coaches steer clear of these kinds of malcontents who dismantle a locker room quickly.
What evidence do you have that Ron Rivera is a good evaluator of talent? He has only had a winning season three times out of his ten seasons as a head coach. The only reason he had any success is that Cam Newton used to be an MVP-level talent. And, shocker, WFT has been terrible with him at the helm.
It’s possible that Rivera has no idea what he’s doing and that Haskins actually has some talent. I’m not saying it’s probable, but I don’t understand why Rivera and WFT is shouldering no blame here.
I do think Ron Rivera is a smart coach. Sometimes first rounders fail for one smart coach and succeed for others. Not everyone is the right fit. Also, as much as I like Rivera, I don’t think he’s the savviest about offense, no.
And lots of coaches have faith enough in the cultures they set that they can take on guys with “character problems.” The Chiefs certainly make a habit of it.
Agree
Well, to be fair, I will say this in defense of Haskins-he does have natural talent athletically. His arm is great and he throws a fantastic spiral. His main problem is not physical.
“His main problem is not physical.”
That’s literally the main problem of every single failed QB at the NFL level. None of them lack natural talent, or they wouldn’t have made it that far. He’s just another in the list of 99.99% of failed QBs at the NFL, which goes to my point of it being a luck-based crapshoot trying to land a true franchise QB.
Scouting QBs is incredibly hard and unpredictable, sure, but it’s also impossible to sort out the coaching piece–both in teaching/development and scheming. Goff was historically bad at first, but then got an actual coach and suddenly looked even better than he is. How many guys never get a chance with the right coach or scheme?
You’re not arguing anything respecting my point. Counter-rhetorical: how do you (or they) even know who/what is the “right” coach/scheme?
If there were such a thing, objectively, it would be predictably provable with something approaching consistency and reliability, which you’ve already acknowledged is not the case (and the data bear that out as well).
OK, but sometimes you can see situations are definitely wrong, like in this case.
In reply to OOOF….Goff is already being treated as one of those QB’s who had 1 good year and now their being questioned as to longevity as a top tier QB……Jimmy G is another…….but you can read all about it if you like. This kid had the benefit of unbelievalbe athletic talent around him at Ohio State and had exactly 14 games of starting experience behind him….he wanted the pay..took it… and took the chance his college athletic ability could allow him to achieve…obviously failing so far….let’s stop blaming the coaching staff for his choices which apparently have been pretty poor so far.
So he started 14 games in college, WFT did nothing to develop him, then they’ve written him off as bad only 16 games into his pro career. WFT, who has such an amazing track record of coaching and developing QBs?
Why “stop blaming the coaching staff”? They utterly failed to develop a first round talent and released the #15 overall pick less than two years after drafting him. That’s a failure of epic proportions.
I don’t think it’s a knock on Haskins that he had more supporting talent in college than he’s had in the pros. And he was as good or better last year than Trubisky or Darnold has basically ever been, but people constantly make excuses for those guys.
You lost me on the “better than Trubisky has ever been” part. Trubisky hasn’t been good, but you really cannot say Haskins has been better than anyone who has even started a full season while also making the argument that his history is better.
Your argument is actually the opposite, that his potential is better. And his stats aren’t good, despite attempts to make look that way. His play in game displays many of the same problems that we see with Trubisky, minus a few key positives: Trubisky is a good leader who his teammates respond to, and is a fantastic runner. Haskins is neither of those things. Trubisky also has a couple of game winning drives, and last second comebacks to his credit. Haskins does not even have that.
As for Darnold, he is accurate on a lot of passes that his receivers miss. At the very least, he is more so than Haskins. Even if we dismiss that point, Darnold is clearly much more motivated than Haskins and does put himself on the line for his teammates, who do respond to his presence. And his line is worse even than Washington’s.
Darnold flashes, but that’s it. And he has had more capable weapons than Haskins has had, even if McLaurin is better than anyone Darnold has.
Citation needed on all that respect Trubisky commands. He’s a better runner, yes.
kaep still w/o a job but this guy is gonna have 2 teams paying him wow unjustice
I love how everyone speculates on who people are, relationships between people and what people think when we never, nor will ever meet/work with these people! Comments are better than the article most of the time!
A lot of sports fans love looking for any reason to feel confident they’re superior to a pro athlete.
My god you are a bore.
Irony