With the sporting world — and the world at large — changing so rapidly due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL has been able to avoid the rapid schedule shifts thus far. They were able to continue on with free agency in March, and they plan to keep the NFL Draft in place near the end of April. However, these two events are able to be done remotely, and the social-distancing guidelines that have been put in place across the world don’t have much effect on them.
But once summer rolls around, and teams are unable to get together to practice, that might change things. There is no guarantee that the NFL will have a football season this fall, which is a dark and scary world to think of. Many, including the President, are still optimistic that things will be able to continue on schedule, but there is a reality in which we don’t see any sports played for the rest of 2020.
If this were to happen, there are a ton of players in the NFL who would have their careers greatly affected. For the Washington Redskins, the player that would be hurt the most is quarterback Dwayne Haskins, according to ESPN’s John Keim.
After learning a complicated West Coast system as a rookie, Haskins now must shift gears and learn a second offense in Year 2. And do it without the benefit of coaching for most, if not all, of the offseason. Haskins is trying to help himself by throwing passes based on the routes run by Carolina’s receivers over the past two years under Norv Turner to get a sense of the offense Turner’s son, Scott, will run in Washington. Haskins has watched film of the Panthers and is working with a quarterbacks coach who has familiarity with this system. He can always pick the brain of newly acquired Kyle Allen, who spent the past two years with Carolina. Haskins will enter camp as the starter, but it’ll take a lot of continued work to make sure he’s ready.
It’s common knowledge that the offseason between your rookie season and your sophomore season is the most important for any player, especially a young quarterback. With a year of experience and an understanding of what is now being asked of you, many players are able to better prepare for the coming season and make a leap forward. Haskins was expected to make that leap in year two, but having his offseason stunted is going to be detrimental to his growth.
There are still things that he can do to get better, and he undoubtedly will do them, but having a year of his growing period taken away would be unfortunate, to say the least. Let’s face it, it’s a world in which none of us win, but hopefully, it won’t happen.
[vertical-gallery id=32976]