The first year of his career was not without hardships for rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins. Throughout his first nine games in Washington, he made several mistakes, had a handful of highlights, and undoubtedly learned a lot.
However, is he the answer at the position going forward? Does he have what it takes to become the franchise quarterback for Ron Rivera and the Redskins as the team hopefully makes a jump up into contention over the next several years? One former longtime Redskins player doesn’t quite think so.
On Monday morning, former Washington center, Jeff Bostic, expressed his thoughts on Haskins, via the Carol Maloney and Andy Pollin Show on ESPN Radio.
“Sometimes as a rookie, particularly a rookie quarterback, it’s hard to tell what his true potential is,” Bostic said on Monday morning. “But from what I saw the latter part of the season, Dwayne Haskins is not the answer.”
It’s interesting that Bostic — who played for 14 years in Washington from 1980-1993 — used the latter part of the season as an example, due to Haskins’ significant improvement over the final few games of the season. While he threw for just 971 yards, three touchdowns and seven interceptions in his first seven games, he racked up 394 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions in his final six quarters before going down with an injury.
“I just don’t think he has a great grasp on … maybe he just needs more learning and more coaching,” Bostic said.
Rivera, who was announced as the next head coach in Washington last week, says that he sees great potential in Haskins, but he made no guarantees to the rookie, noting that there are veteran players who will get a look for the starting quarterback position.
As Haskins enters his first offseason as an NFL player, one thing is clear; he’s going to have to earn his playing time going forward, and nothing is going to be given to him.
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