At 0-11, it is now clear the Bengals didn’t do much right in the offseason. However, passing on Dwayne Haskins sure looks like a good move.
The Cincinnati Bengals had the chance to take Dwayne Haskins in the first round of April’s draft and make him their quarterback of the future. Judging by a twitter poll we ran the night before the draft, a fair amount of fans wanted this.
Bengals brass opted for offensive lineman Jonah Williams instead. We won’t see Williams in action until 2020, but Haskins is on the verge of further dooming the Redskins franchise for the foreseeable future.
Haskins has been a disaster in five games (three starts) for Washington. He has just two touchdown passes to six interceptions and a woeful 54.6 completion percentage. John Elway once lined up behind the guard as a rookie. So, there are exceptions. Still, when a quarterback is as overwhelmed as Haskins is at the moment, it tends to stay that way.
The problem for Washington is because Haskins is a first round pick, they have to give him more chances than he may deserve. Of course, the organization could move on from Haskins after just part of a single season. The Cardinals did it with Josh Rosen, However, it was unprecedented for that to happen once. Don’t count on it happening twice.
Washington is stuck with Haskins. At least the Bengals know that no one in their building is the long term answer at the game’s most important position. Better yet, they don’t have significant resources tied in to any of the current guys. Additionally, Cincinnati will almost certainly be in position to take whatever top quarterback prospect they want in the 2020 draft.
0-11 is terrible for the city, fans, and players. However, being in position to get the next guy without creating a roster jam or having to make moves on draft night represents a way out of laughing stock territory the Redskins wish they had right now.