Dwayne Haskins is officially the week one starter for the Washington Football Team. Head coach Ron Rivera made the announcement to the media today after
practice via his daily zoom call.
“Dwayne has lived up to everything he and I talked about in the middle of January,” Rivera said.
“I’ve been very pleased with his attitude and the way he has approached everything.”
Rivera indicated that the team has known that the second-year pro from Ohio State would be the week one starter for about three weeks but has kept it under wraps. One reason for the decision is so the team can focus on the home opener against Philadelphia on September 13th and not a quarterback controversy which is something all too familiar to D.C. football fans.
“This has been a little bit different training camp. We aren’t playing any preseason games and it was going to be hard to do a true competition and really see it unfold,” Rivera said.
Haskins has been challenged this offseason to become a team leader and seemed to respond. His workouts on social media became closely watched and he reported to training camp in much better shape than the year before.
The final hurdle, however, appeared to be the decisions he made on the field rather than off.
“You started to see him early one catch up to everything while everything was happening fast he was just a tick behind,” Rivera said. “Then all of a sudden he was even then he was ahead of everything. Those are the things you are looking for when you watch your guy. Is he picking up the nuances of stuff the defenses are showing and then is he reacting to it in a timely fashion and almost anticipating it.”
The coach demurred on naming a back up for week one. Kyle Allen, who started for Rivera in Carolina last year when Cam newton was injured, is thought to have the inside track on the backup spot, but Alex Smith’s amazing recovery from his 2018 broken leg could be a wildcard.
Rosters must be trimmed to 53 active players by this weekend. The practice squad should be filled out early next week.