Washington Benched Dwayne Haskins for “Poor Study and Practice Habits”

Dwayne Haskins in college. Photo by Adam Lacy/CSM/REX/Shutterstock

Washington’s head coach Ron Rivera recently made an unexpected decision to bench sophomore signal-caller Dwayne Haskins and install backup Kyle Allen as the team’s starting quarterback in Week 5. While the news came as a surprise to most of the NFL world, it turns out that this scenario was largely expected inside the Washington organization.

In a piece published on Washington Post, Les Carpenter went in-depth on events that led to Haskins’ benching and cited several sources from within the Washington Football Team. According to these sources, the 23-year-old Ohio State product lost his job due to “poor study and practice habits.”

Reportedly, Haskins lacked preparation time over the course of the week, which led to repeated mistakes on game day. He also showed an overall lack of dedication, with some of his teammates pointing out that veteran Alex Smith came earlier and worked harder than Haskins despite knowing he’ll be inactive.

Over the course of his first four games in 2020, Dwayne Haskins completed 61.0 percent of his passes. He threw for 939 yards, four touchdowns, and three interceptions. Washington went 1-3 in these four games.

Despite having just one win, Washington is half a game behind the first place in a struggling NFC East. According to reports, this situation also led to Rivera’s decision to bench Haskins as he saw a chance to compete for a place in the playoffs.

“This is not as much an indictment on Dwayne as much as it is an indictment on the situation and circumstances that we are in,” – Rivera told reporters earlier this week. “He did not have the benefit of [offseason workouts] and minicamp. He didn’t have the benefit of four preseason games to work through things. Because of that, he’s behind in his development in this system. Again, it’s an unfortunate situation.”