Comments from Logan Thomas leave us wondering if Dwayne Haskins still has a future in Washington
Riding high on a three-game winning streak and fresh off of a win that handed the NFL’s last unbeaten team their first loss of the year, it appears that the Washington Football Team has found their QB of the present, and potentially for the next year in Alex Smith. However, despite the current success they’re having, arguably the biggest thing standing between them and a bright future filled with success down the road is future certainty at the quarterback position.
It seems fairly obvious that Washington will look to draft a QB in 2021, but that may get harder and harder going forward if they continue to win, as their draft slot in the first round will keep dropping, and the top guys may be gone by the time they’re on the clock. They are currently slotted to pick No. 11 in 2021. However, there is one other solution that may be gaining some promise, and it’s right under their nose.
Dwayne Haskins.
After everything that has gone on this season — Haskins starting the first handful of games and then getting unceremoniously benched and removed from the active roster on gameday — it may seem crazy that Washington would want to go back to their former first-round pick, or that Haskins would want to play again in Washington. However, some recent comments from TE Logan Thomas show that things are looking up for the young QB in Washington, who seems to be accepting his role in the learning stage of his career.
“I think he’s been doing a great job these last however many weeks,” Thomas said on The Sports Junkies on Wednesday, via NBC Sports Washington. “You definitely see a change in how he’s holding himself, how he’s engaged, how he wants to be a part of it, how he’s excited to come into work everyday and learn something new.”
The biggest knock on Haskins when he was benched — outside of his poor play on the field — was that he had reportedly been slacking on his starting QB duties, and falling behind on film study with a weak work ethic poking through. The hope was that he could be sent to the bench and learn how to be an NFL QB, watching a guy like Alex Smith as a first-hand account. Any coach will tell you that Haskins has the arm talent to succeed in this league, but his knowledge and mentality needed to improve to be a leader on the team.
“I’m proud of him,” Thomas said. “When the whole thing happened where he ended up getting benched, I told him, ‘Help this fuel you, make you better. And down the road, when you get that chance again, go ball and don’t ever look back.’ I have expectations that when he does get that chance, that’s exactly what he’ll do.”
So will that chance come in Washington, or somewhere else? If you were to be given betting odds, I have a feeling that ‘somewhere else’ would be the heavy favorite, but I’m not so ready to move on from Haskins returning to the field in Washington next year just yet. We’ve seen the talent, and with Smith mentoring him, there’s no reason he can’t be who Washington drafted him to be somewhere down the road.
