Dwayne Haskins, the No. 15 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, has been benched by the Washington Football Team only four games into his second season. Ron Rivera follows Jay Gruden in another Washington coach not wanting to attach the team's offense to Haskins.
Gruden turned to veteran Case Keenum as their starter over Haskins early last season. Only after Gruden was fired after five games did Haskins get his chance to start under interim coach Bill Callahan, and that was only after a concussion sidelined Keenum at midseason. A year later, Rivera going with second-year QB Kyle Allen — beginning with Week 5's home game vs. the Rams — after initially starting Haskins is a whole different situation.
MORE: What's next for Dwayne Haskins after Washington benching?
Keenum, a pending free-agent journeyman, signed in 2020 as the Browns' backup at 32, was simply a one-year bridge QB. Alllen, meanwhile, is a real threat to displace Haskins as Washington's preferred franchise QB of the moment.
What Washington did with Haskins wasn't shocking, given Rivera hinted at the possibility before last Sunday's Week 4 home loss to Baltimore if Haskins would continue to play poorly, which he did against a tough defense. In reality, the real surprise is that Rivera simply didn't already start Allen over Haskins in Week 1.
Here's a breakdown of why the decision went down the way that it did:
Ron Rivera liked what he saw from Kyle Allen — enough to trade for him
Allen, who made 12 starts for the Panthers under Rivera for an injured Cam Newton in 2019, didn't really light it up. He went 5-7, rating a mediocre 80.0 and averaging 6.8 yards per passing attempt. Statistically, that is only a slight improvement from Haskins, who has rated 77.8 at 6.6 yards per attempt in his young career. The rate of touchdowns to almost as many interceptions in both cases is also virtually the same, as well as sacks per dropback.
But beyond the numbers, keep in mind Allen is now in his third year in the system, this time with Norv's son Scott, who really helped him as Panthers quarterbacks coach. There's a better and well established relationship there. Allen had some rough games last season, but when he was on and playing well within the system, he put up some big games.
Allen carries both the higher floor and the higher ceiling for Turner and Rivera. Consider Haskins has never thrown for more than two TDs in a game and rated higher than 100.0 in efficiency only twice. Allen had some team-carrying performances against the Cardinals, Buccaneers and Saints last season. He had a better sense of getting the ball into his top playmakers, running back Christian McCaffrey and wide receiver D.J. Moore.
Rivera wants someone to get more out of running back Antonio Gibson and wide receiver Terry McLaurin. Allen will lean on them and also connect better with tight end Logan Thomas. How much were Rivera and the younger Turner impressed with Allen's promise? They gave up a fifth-round pick for him in March, even with Newton still being available as a free-agent on the cheap.
That doesn't seem like big compensation, but it did plenty to show how much Rivera wanted to connect with Allen again.
Rivera gave it his best shot to make it work with Dwayne Haskins
Rivera may have had his mind on starting Allen all along, but as he should have, he did his due diligence on Haskins. He had to give him a few more games to see if they could have an effective, winning relationship. Despite the big Week 1 comeback win against the Eagles, the evidence was stacked against Haskins.
There was the thinking that Haskins' big arm would be more well suited for Turner's Erhardt-Perkins scheme than Gruden's West Coast. Instead there's a sense of real regression, considering Haskins finished his rookie year strong before missing Week 17 with an ankle injury.
Four games in a new offense would seem not to be enough of a sample size. But this is the NFL, where the sooner you realize you're not set with a young franchise QB, you need to move on quickly to make the right related decisions in the next offseason. From Rivera's perspective, it was also his responsibility to fully evaluate Allen to see, like the Jaguars and Gardner Minshew (now in Gruden's offense), whether he could be that guy.
The fact that Alex Smith is healthy enough to be the No. 2 to Allen behind Haskins is telling, too. Smith, a smart QB with great future offensive coaching potential, has proved to have a strong influence on young quarterbacks. Had Haskins been the top backup on the depth chart, Allen would have been pressured to look over his shoulder. Instead, Allen has Smith for the ultimate support to prove he can be a lot better than Haskins.
MORE: How the Eagles lead the NFC East with only one win
Rivera is asserting himself as chief decision-maker
The Haskins pick looks like the latest big draft bust for Washington. But it's clear the decision was made by former team president Bruce Allen — with no doubt a significant degree of influence from football matter-meddling owner Daniel Snyder — without considering whether Haskins would be the right philosophical and personality fit with Gruden.
Rivera, with personnel control under new team president Jason Wright as the de facto GM, is empowered to make the final calls that are in the best interest of the team. He was brought in to clean up the team, making it more disciplined and organized. Looking at Haskins' games in 2020, there hasn't been a sense he's "getting it", more looking like a misfit for meshing with Rivera's brand of leadership.
Rivera's first big stamp on the team was drafting edge Chase Young to be the cornerstone of a promising rebuilding defense that will go back to being a daunting one when Young returns from his groin injury. As a defensive-minded coach, that was expected. Consider his switch from Haskins to Allen to be his needed early offensive coup.
Rivera thinks his team can still win the NFC East — even though it won't
Washington is 1-3 after four games, still resting on that improbable rally to beat the Eagles in Week 1. Three weeks later, no one could have imagined that Philadelphia would be in first place in the division at 1-2-1.
The bottom line is, Washington has a head-to-head win over the leader with five more division games left. There also are very winnable games outside of the division against the Bengals, Lions and Rivera's former team, the Panthers.
At this rate, in the NFL's weakest division, 8-8 might cut it for an NFC playoff berth as East champions, for whatever that's worth. Washington finishing 7-5 with Allen seems like a real stretch, but again, Rivera can think about the fact that Allen was only two games off that mark in 2019.
Say the Cowboys or Eagles were 4-0 and Washington was 0-4. Would the thinking change? Probably not, because that would mean Haskins' performance would have been worse and Allen would stand out as the better choice from either the standpoint of "giving his team the best chance to win games" or "providing a spark to the offense."
The writing was on the wall for Haskins' future when Rivera made the trade for Allen. With benching Haskins, Rivera also just traded in his pencil for a Sharpie.
