Les Carpenter, The Washington Post
Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins said he has been working hard this offseason and wants "to be the face of the franchise."
Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins said he has been working hard this offseason and wants "to be the face of the franchise."
Photo: Washington Post Photo By Jonathan Newton
Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins said he has been working hard this offseason and wants "to be the face of the franchise."
Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins said he has been working hard this offseason and wants "to be the face of the franchise."
Dwayne Haskins, slimmed down and with renewed focus, promises to be better in second year
Almost as soon as Ron Rivera was named the Washington Redskins' head coach, he has challenged Dwayne Haskins, wanting the quarterback to prove he can be the team's leader. On Wednesday, Rivera seemed to push one again, when during a video news conference he said there would be "one heck of a battle" between Haskins and Kyle Allen for the starting quarterback job in training camp.
Rivera has mentioned this competition many times, despite the fact the job almost certainly belongs to Haskins.
The quarterback struggled at times during his rookie season, from trying to grasp Washington's complex offense, to sensing Coach Jay Gruden had reservations drafting him, to dealing with a coaching change when Gruden was fired after five games. Even his first win was marred by maturity questions after he took a selfie with a fan that kept him from the game's final kneeldown. But he has seemed to understand Rivera's demands. Late Wednesday afternoon the quarterback sat on a couch in his home, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt that showed off his leaner body and said he has been working to prove he can be the leader Rivera wants.
"I'm going to deliver, it's never been a question about that," Haskins said.
He said he has been pushing not just in his private workouts with other players during the novel coronavirus shutdown but also off the field as well. He said he knows there are perceptions that, even as he enters his second NFL season, many around the NFL think he needs to prove something beyond just an ability to throw.
"I won't necessarily say it's just about football, it's with everything in life," Haskins said. "I just wanted to be a man about my business and that's on and off the field. Not that I wasn't prior, too, but now turning 23, still being young and growing, whenever there were questions about immaturity or lack of whatever it was, I was going to change that whether it was me or not - just for myself because I needed to do that for me. I applied pressure with everything I did this offseason with my body and how I studied and it's making a big difference."
Whenever people around the team talk about Haskins this past winter and spring, they mention the amount of time he has spent throwing, lifting weights, running and learning new coordinator Scott Turner's offense. Pressed on this during Wednesday's call, Haskins said, "I just cut off a lot of toxic stuff in my life," without going into detail about what the toxic things were.
He said he is 218 pounds, which is almost 20 pounds lighter than when he came to the Redskins last spring, and weighs 10 pounds less than when he began training this past winter.
"I want to be the best player I can be for my team and that was me working it and it just fell off," he said of the weight loss, adding that he didn't intend to lose that much weight. "I'll be more of a dynamic football player this year and I'm looking forward to making some plays."
The pressure on Haskins will be extreme, given Rivera's need to quickly find the team's future quarterback. Last year, Haskins played poorly early, throwing for just 140 yards in parts of two games with four interceptions and no touchdowns. But he finished strong, throwing for five touchdowns and only one interception in his final three starts.
These later performances appear to have given the Redskins' staff hope to go forward with Haskins. Rivera said Wednesday that he was "proud" Haskins had gone to last weekend's protests in Washington to better understand ways he can "make a difference." Haskins, in his Wednesday call, talked about wanting "to be the face of the franchise" and "working to do that."
"He is a young man who is just learning the game, came out of college early - obviously - and is just one of those things where as you see him grow and develop you can see those types of things that you are hoping for," Rivera said. "I appreciate the attitude and effort that he has approached this with."
Rivera said Haskins sometimes sends him late-night texts, long after the coach has gone to bed, asking questions that the coach won't see until the morning. Still, Rivera said he is happy for the communication, sensing that Haskins is showing "maturity" and understanding the demands Rivera has placed on him to be a leader.
Haskins said he is studying Turner's offense, a process he described as simpler than last year, in the months after leaving Ohio State - in part because he has already gone through learning an NFL offense and partly because Turner's system uses fewer words and "is easier to regurgitate."
In a normal year, Haskins would have been finishing his final minicamp this week, giving the team and the coaches a better understanding of how much he has grown. Instead, they will have to wait until later this summer when training camps open and his second NFL season can begin.
See the original post here:
Dwayne Haskins, slimmed down and with renewed focus, promises to be better in second year - Alton Telegraph
