News broke over the weekend that Washington QB Alex Smith was removed from the PUP list and activated for football activities. While this is an incredible step in his recovery from what seemed like a career-ending injury, it now raises some questions for the Washington Football Team.
With Smith being healthy, does that mean that he can regain the starting position over Dwayne Haskins? Does Smith’s return act as a distraction for Haskins going forward, seeing as he now seemingly has more competition for a job that was thought to be already his? There are two different ways to look at it, but if you were to ask coach Ron Rivera, he’d tell you that bringing competition to practice is never a bad thing.
“If Alex is healthy and continues to get healthy and we do activate him, he’s going to be in the throes of this competition,” Rivera said last week. “It’s going to unfold very nicely as a football team for us because competition is only going to make you better. It’s going to push the young guys as well.”
It’s unlikely that Smith competes for that starting job right away, but he will seemingly be in the mix all season, and his presence behind Haskins should keep the second-year player on the top of his game, knowing that he could be replaced by the veteran at any moment.
There is another way that Smith’s return is actually a huge benefit to Haskins, which we covered a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that Smith was initially cleared for football-related activities.
On the contrary, Smith’s return to football activities may be beneficial for Haskins, as he has one of the more prominent mentors back at his side on the practice field. Haskins went through his trials and tribulations during his rookie season in 2019, and several claims were made that Smith’s guidance and leadership helped Haskins along the way. It’s important to note that Smith was one of the players who NFL-star Patrick Mahomes credits for some of his early success as well.
Haskins talked about this last week, noting that he is aware of the competition that Smith could bring, but he’s excited to have that type of veteran mentor alongside him, pushing him to be better every step of the way.
“Even if we get to run together against each other in competition and drills, I’m trying to make sure he gets me better and I get him better,” Haskins said last week. “I look at Alex as someone who is a mentor in the room who can get me better every single day as far as who we’re getting ready for this week and who we’re getting ready for next week.”
It will be incredibly interesting to watch this situation going forward, as we see how quickly Smith progresses and gets back onto the field. At this point though, if everyone is able to stay mentally strong and hold certain their roles on the team, it should hopefully be smooth sailing in the Washington QB room.
[vertical-gallery id=36124]