Big news came out of the nation’s capital on Wednesday morning as Ian Rapoport reported that 2019 first-round pick, Dwayne Haskins, has been benched in favor of third-year quarterback Kyle Allen for the Washington Football Team. Haskins is just 11 starts into his NFL career, and has struggled thus far. Tom Pelissero is also reporting that Alex Smith will be the back-up quarterback this week as Haskins slides to the third quarterback on the depth chart.
Sources: The Washington Football Team is making a QB change. Kyle Allen will get the start vs. the #Rams, while former starter Dwayne Haskins goes to the bench.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 7, 2020
Dwayne Haskins Benched; Kyle Allen To Start on Sunday
After 11 starts and two appearances off of the bench, the 2019 first-round pick is heading to the bench for Washington. Haskins has struggled with accuracy this season with a 61% completion percentage with four touchdowns to three interceptions (all in Week 3) and 939 yards. This was a disappointment for Washington as Haskins showed flashes of what made him a first-round pick in his last two starts in 2019. Haskins has grown as a leader this season, giving the halftime speech in Week 1, but this has yet to translate to the field. Washington has averaged just 19.8 points per game, good for 30th in the NFL.
From the stat sheet, Haskins seemed to improve this past week with his first 300-yard game in his career and a completion percentage over 70%. However, coach Ron Rivera did not seemed pleased with Haskins’ situational awareness as he made a checkdown on fourth and goal from the 13 yard line. There were also reports from J.P. Finlay last week about a meeting with Haskins on how he must show improvement in his play, as well as a game day report by Rapoport on the potential in-game benching of Haskins.
Third-year quarterback, Kyle Allen is slated this week against the Los Angeles Rams. Allen was with Washington Offensive Coordinator Scott Turner and Ron Rivera last season with the Carolina Panthers. He got off to a fast start last season, going 4-0 with seven touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first four starts. However, Allen was benched in favor of Will Grier after throwing 16 interceptions in his last nine games. Another inspirational story for Washington is the news of Alex Smith being promoted to the back-up quarterback role. Smith has not played a snap since a nasty leg injury, which led to a major infection, in 2018.
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
