Washington Benches Haskins

The Washington Football Team will have a new starter at quarterback against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Head coach Ron Rivera has decided to demote incumbent Dwayne Haskins and elevate Kyle Allen to the starting role, according to multiple reports.

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Furthermore, Washington shuttled Haskins all the way down to third-string, pushing Alex Smith into the backup role, a move that essentially spells the end of the Haskins era in Washington.

The 15th overall selection in the 2019 NFL Draft, Haskins played in nine games as a rookie last season, starting seven of them. He was named the starter for the 2020 season after winning the quarterback battle in September.

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Upon naming Haskins the starter, Rivera indicated it would be a long-term designation.

"He deserves the opportunity. He's going to get my support. Hopefully, we can ride it as long as I rode it with Cam [Newton]."

But after a 1-3 start to the season, Rivera and Washington are going in a different direction.

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Haskins completed 59.9 percent of his passes in his 11 starts, posting a 3-8 record with 11 passing touchdowns and six interceptions.

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Allen, meanwhile, has 13 career starts under his belt, along with the added benefit of familiarity with Rivera from their time with the Carolina Panthers during the previous two seasons.

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In two years with the Panthers, Allen went 6-7 with a 61.9 completion percentage, 19 passing touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

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As just a one-year starter at Ohio State, lack of experience always loomed when questions were asked about Haskins.

With that in mind, ESPN's Damien Woody thinks Washington didn't give Haskins enough time to get an adequate assessment.

"There's just not enough time. How can you really evaluate a guy, his career, after this short period of time? It just doesn't make any sense to me."

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FOX Sports NFL analyst Mark Schlereth sees it a different way, offering that the NFL is a results-based business and that Haskins' start to the season left little for Washington in the way of options.

"As one of my good friends and sports mentors, Clint Hurdle, used to say all the time when he was managing baseball, 'This is not a try-hard league. This is a do-good league.'

"Haskins is at the bottom of the barrel statistically of starting quarterbacks in a division where the winner may only need seven or eight games."

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Circumstances didn't help Haskins much, either. The staff that drafted him was let go midway through last season, and an offseason of drama ⁠— coupled with the pandemic ⁠— left little time to make an impression on the incoming Rivera.

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It looks like Haskins' time in Washington is done, but at 23 years old, there's plenty of time for Haskins potentially to reboot his career elsewhere.

For Washington, the NFC East is still well within reach, as the Eagles lead the division by half-game at 1-2-1.

They'll now bank on Allen as the guy to push them closer to the top, with Smith waiting in the wings.

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