Dwayne Haskins could be in line to make his first career start on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, as Case Keenum left last week’s game with a concussion and remained in the protocol as of Tuesday. If the first-round pick does get the call, he will be looking to prove a lot of naysayers wrong — perhaps even some with his own team.
Washington Redskins interim head coach Bill Callahan praised Haskins on Monday for the way he “took command of the offense” in practice, but there has been a lot of talk about the rookie struggling to learn the playbook. According to Les Carpenter of the Washington Post, multiple Redskins sources say Haskins has struggled to learn the team’s plays going back to training camp, and they are surprised by his slow development.
Haskins replaced Keenum in the second half of last week’s 19-9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and there were times when players looked confused about what plays were being called. Mike Garafolo of NFL Network later reported that Adrian Peterson had a talk with Haskins after the game and told the former Ohio State star that he needs to “learn these plays” and prove people wrong. Peterson said his discussion with Haskins was all positive, but Carpenter reports that one player said after the loss that he did not believe Haskins was ready to play.
The offense in Washington is the one Jay Gruden put into place, and it is considered somewhat complicated. Callahan has already indicated he agrees with Gruden that Haskins needs more time to sit on the bench and learn, though that would be true of most rookie quarterbacks.
Haskins has tried to defend himself over talk that he is struggling with his preparation, but the only way to prove it is to execute. He may have an opportunity to do that on Sunday.
