Is benching Dwayne Haskins the best way to save him?

Dwayne Haskins finds himself on the bench after four weeks. Why, and is there a way to save him in Washington?

Wednesday morning it was announced that Washington Football Team is sending quarterback Dwayne Haskins to the bench, and calling on Kyle Allen to start their next game. Furthermore, they are promoting Alex Smith to the backup spot, relegating Haskins to the third-string role.

Haskins has struggled this season, to be sure. With 11 starts under his belt, including all four of Washington’s games this season, we have a pretty solid sample size from the second-year quarterback. He has completed just 59.6% of his throws during those 11 games, for 11 touchdowns and ten interceptions. This year, Haskins has just completed 61% of his passes for four touchdowns and three interceptions.

Beyond the production – or lack thereof – is how Haskins is approaching the game. From where I sit, there are two distinct problem areas: Accuracy, and mental execution.

Now remember that completion percentage does not always equal accuracy, but in some cases it can highlight a problem area worthy of further examination. Even quarterbacks with high completion percentages can be inaccurate passers, relying on scheme and talent around them to boost their perceived ability to place throws. Yet in the case of Haskins, those completion percentage numbers do tell a story.

Take this throw from last week:

This is a quarterback-friendly design from offensive coordinator Scott Turner, ideal for a young quarterback. Pre-snap we see motion, and with a defender trailing the receiver across the formation, Haskins can trust that the Baltimore Ravens are in man coverage. They run a vertical double-move with Terry McLaurin, their best receiver.

Then Haskins misses the throw by approximately six yards.

Now precision passing is not the standard on throws of this distance, but you at least want to give your receiver a chance. McLaurin does not have a chance.

Where precision passing matters is in the short area of the field, where the difference in placement between one hip and the other, or one shoulder and the other, can mean the difference between a completion, and an incompletion.

Here are two examples. First, a simple checkdown throw to the running back in the flat:

This is a throw that, apologies to Doug Pederson, is football’s equivalent of a layup. But Haskins misses this by about five feet. I recall missing a throw like this once. Freshman year against Williams College, our starting quarterback got lit up by a defensive tackle who would go on to be an offensive lineman for the Ravens, among other teams. So I trotted onto the field. At some point in that game, I threw a hitch route to the left sideline that looked a lot like this miss from Haskins.

I was on the bench for the next series.

Then there is this incompletion, throwing in the direction of McLaurin:

This is a prime example of how precision matters in the short areas of the field. The slant route is a tough one to throw for a quarterback because it somewhat defies conventional wisdom. As Brian Billick put it in an old Ravens’ playbook, you want to put this throw “as low as possible.” Bill Walsh, in his Stanford quarterback manual, highlighted how you want to put this on the receiver, and not lead him. Leading the receiver on the slant route gets him in trouble. You want to put this throw on the receiver’s frame, so he can shield the defender from the football. On Monday night, Brian Hoyer made a slant route throw to N’Keal Harry and Tony Romo immediately pointed out how he put the throw on Harry’s frame, preventing the defender from making a play on the ball.

But here, Haskins puts this behind McLaurin, and that gives Marlon Humphrey a shot at the football, and he makes a play at the catch point to prevent the reception.

Now, is there a common theme to these throws? On all of them, you can see a bit of a forward body lean from Haskins, most pronounced on the slant route throw. This leads to an inconsistency with his release point, perhaps contributing to the shaky ball placement on these throws. Haskins’ throwing mechanics were a bit of a concern coming out of Ohio State, and while we have long argued here that “mechanics don’t matter until they matter,” this could be a case of them mattering a lot.

Beyond the shaky placement, there is the mental side. This interception against the Cleveland Browns is a prime example. Make sure the volume is on for this video breakdown:

This is a rather standard route concept, four verticals out of a 3×1 formation. Now Haskins might think pre-snap, due to the defensive alignments, that the “bender” working from right-to-left is his best read, as it will get matched up against a linebacker. Even if this throw is pre-determined, you still need to move that free safety with your eyes, even if just a few steps, to increase the chance this throw gets completed. If you allow that safety to simply read your eyes and then break on the ball – thereby constricting the throwing lane – you’re putting yourself in a position where you have to make the perfect throw.

Haskins fails to move the safety, he fails to make the perfect throw (perhaps unexpected, given the previous discussion) and the ball is intercepted.

So, can he be fixed?

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