Dwayne Haskins the rookie
The second part of this analysis centers on what Washington, and in particular their new coaching staff, saw from Haskins as a rookie.
Let us start, as is sometimes appropriate, with numbers. Haskins was at or near the bottom of many NFL passing metrics. His Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt of 4.25 was 33rd – and dead last – among qualified passers a season ago. His Y/A of 6.7 was behind such illustrious passers as Joe Flacco, Sam Darnold, Case Keenum, Kyle Allen and Josh Allen (although it nosed out Tom Brady’s 6.6 mark, but that might say more about Brady’s 2019 season than this Patriots fan would care to admit). Finally, his AY/A of 5.9 was also near the bottom of the league, just ahead of players like Mason Rudolph and Develin Hodges.
Oh, and Haskins threw seven interceptions against seven touchdowns, and completed just 58.6 percent of his passes.
So, the numbers were not good.
But numbers alone do not tell the story, and if you dig into his film a bit you see evidence that Haskins started to grow as a quarterback. Of course, when you are pressed into action and throw some disastrous interceptions in your first NFL action, there is usually nowhere to go but up. Take, for example, this pick six that he threw in his first live action, against the Giants:
Haskins is reading a simple go/swing combination on the left, and the coverage is sound. That should be something he sees immediately, but he stays on that a bit too long. He then comes to the dig route in the middle of the field from his tight end, but he locks his eyes on that route too long as well. That gives the free safety a chance to jump the dig, and Jabrill Peppers returns it for six.
But over the course of the season there was evidence that Haskins was starting to “get it.” Take his Week 14 game against the Green Bay Packers. If you wanted to see evidence of a rookie QB figuring things out then study these two plays. Early in the game, Haskins takes a sack on a double-curl concept:
On this snap there is a window to throw the outside curl route with some hesitation, which as you remember from a few paragraphs ago was something he was doing back at Ohio State. Rather than pull the trigger, he hesitates, and takes a sack.
Later in the game Washington runs virtually the same route combination, and this time Haskins remembers what he can do as a passer, and gets the ball out on time and with anticipation:
Then the following week against the Philadelphia Eagles – a team desperate for a win to stay in playoff contention – Haskins turned in arguably his best game of the season. Against the Eagles he completed 19 of 28 passes for 261 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and posted an Y/A of 9.32 (his best of the season) and a AY/A of 10.75, a mark he would only surpass in the season finale against the Giants.
What did we see in that game against the Eagles on film? How about this great example of Haskins reading the zone rotation and making the defense pay:
Haskins reads this switch concept perfectly and throws the boundary wheel route into space. I also love how he gives Steven Sims a chance to secure the throw and put his body between the ball and the nearest defender. Haskins also knows pre-snap that the Eagles are in zone coverage, given their response to the pre-snap motion, so he makes an informed decision to attack the soft spot in the secondary.
Washington capped off that drive with this touchdown connection from Haskins to Sims:
Now, at first glance this seems like a risky throw. However, I would grade this as a great read and decision from the quarterback. Haskins knows the Eagles are in man coverage (thanks to the pre-snap motion indicator) and knows that Sims is running a route breaking to the outside. Once he sees the “29” on the back of Avonte Maddox on his jersey, Haskins knows that a throw to the inside – behind the defensive back’s back – will be tough to defend. That is exactly where he puts the throw:
Haskins reads and executes this perfectly.
Closing out this quick look at Haskins from 2019 we can look at another throw from his game against the Eagles. Here, Haskins operates off of a play-action design and Washington runs a dagger concept. That pairs a seam route on the inside with a dig route on the outside from Terry McLaurin working towards the middle of the field. Haskins comes out of his run fake – having turned his back on the defense – and comes up throwing:
This is again great processing and anticipation in the middle of the field, the things we saw from Haskins back at Ohio State. A critical component here is that Haskins is able to execute having turned his back on the defense. Granted, he has a solid idea of the coverage due to the pre-snap motion and the defense’s reaction, but anytime a QB – especially a rookie – compresses the time he has to read a defense by turning his back on it, and still makes an anticpation throw attacking the middle of the field, it is a good sign.
My point with all this? By the end of the season the rookie quarterback was starting to put everything together. His best statistical games of the year were his final two, and one was against the Eagles who were fighting for their playoff lives. Unfortunately, his Week 16 outing against the Giants was cut short due to an ankle injury, but the point remains. By the end of his rookie year, Haskins was getting it.
Will that be enough?