In the movie “Wall Street,” Charlie Sheen’s character, Bud Fox, said, “life comes down to a series of moments” right before going in to meet Gordon Gekko. If that saying is true, did Washington Football fans see one late Thanksgiving afternoon that may have hinted at the future at quarterback?
With less than three minutes and 46 seconds left in the game and the burgundy and gold needing a first down to help snuff out what small hope Dallas had at a comeback, Alex Smith scrambled for a three-yard pickup. He dove out of bounds and was helped to his feet by his backup, Dwayne Haskins.
If you were at the food table, filling your plate with a second helping, you missed it. If you were head coach Ron Rivera, you did not.
“I like what he’s doing out there on the football field,” Rivera said about Haskins in his Friday morning zoom call with reporters. “You guys don’t get to see it, but between him and [QB] Steven Montez, you see the two young quarterbacks are mimicking during the drills, during the periods, what [QB] Alex [Smith] is doing. They’re learning. That’s a huge plus.”
With Covid-19 restrictions keeping reporters out of the locker room after practices and games, it is hard to get a sense of a player’s state of mind. Publicly, Rivera has been supportive of Haskins, saying he isn’t ready right now but could be in the future if he does what quarterbacks need to do to be a starter in the NFL.
Most people think Rivera is only paying lip service to get as much as possible in an offseason trade. The current sentiment is that Washington will move on from Haskins at the end of the season and draft another quarterback to learn behind Alex Smith. But what if Rivera means what he says?
Haskins re-tweeted a gif of the play with the message, “Got your back 11, great game. Now let’s eat. Happy Thanksgiving!” It led reporters to ask about Haskins’s growth since being demoted.
“Without a doubt, Dwayne has really grown I think in the last month in terms of the things we’ve talked about in terms of wanting to see him get an understanding and build on it,” Rivera said.
This year, Smith’s play has flipped the team’s script as it heads into the home stretch of 2020 and looking ahead to 2021. Smith is proving he can’t just play, but play effectively. Young players on offense like receivers Cam Simms and Isaiah Wright have broken out with Smith at quarterback. Running back Antonio Gibson is becoming a force both running and catching the football. Wideout Terry McLaurin leads the league in receiving yards. The strides they have made have been with Smith at quarterback.
“I thought they played well,” Rivera said. “I thought they kept us going. They gave us an opportunity and then we took advantage of it. That’s one of the things that’s really cool about how our team handled it. The stage didn’t seem to be too big.”
Smith gives Washington the most valuable commodity a rebuilding team can have, and that’s time. He will be 37 next season, but Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers have shown that 37 is the new 27 in the NFL. It’s conceivable that Smith has two or three significant years ahead of him, more than enough time to groom Haskins to take over what could still be a young but talented team.
Many young QB’s come into the league overmatched not because they can’t do the job but because there is no supporting cast around them. The ones that succeed aren’t thrown to the wolves right away. Think Rodgers, Brees, and Brady.
Smith also has experience with the mentoring job. He’s done it well enough for two successors to have gone on to Super Bowls (Colin Kapernick and Patrick Mahomes).
It also means the team can spend its draft capital elsewhere. Left tackle is a need, as is wide receiver, tight end, and linebacker. The list is long.
Rivera has always said Haskins possesses the physical tools to do the job.
“He’s got an arm that’s an NFL talent, and he’s learning the rest of it,” Rivera said. “As I said before, he hasn’t played a lot of football. We do want to create opportunities for him to play football. Right now, he’s practicing, and he’s practicing well. He’s meeting, he’s understanding what it takes in the meetings. At least I believe he is right now. I like what he’s doing out there on the football field.”
Again, conventional wisdom will probably win out, but it’s an exciting alternative to consider.