Washington’s QB story is astonishing 

Over the past 2 decades, Washington has had 24 different starting quarterbacks. This year has already had 2 and might turn into 3 by the end of the year. They had potential with Robert Griffin the Third, better known as RG3, but ruined his potential by playing him through a bad injury. Over the past couple of decades, Washington has moved on from each and every quarterback fast. They seem to have no idea how to develop a quarterback and it shows. 

Dwayne Haskins 

This year has been no different, only 4 games into the NFL season Washington benched QB Dwayne Haskins. Kyle Allen, who was with former Panthers head coach Ron Rivera, who is now the head coach of Washington, started week 5 against the Los Angeles Rams. Haskins had only played 13 games in his college career, 11 NFL games, and has played under 3 different head coaches meaning 3 different systems to learn. QBs can only learn so many playbooks before it mentally drains them. Ron Rivera stated that he wanted Dwayne Haskins to go .500(2-2) in this season’s first 4 games and he failed to do that. Not only did he get benched, he became the 3rd string quarterback, which means 2 quarterbacks are in line before him. Keep in mind that 3 of those 4 games were against teams above average and Washington is.. well very below average. The first 4 teams Washington played have a combined record of 12-7-1 and the week 5 game was against another playoff-caliber team. Haskins got benched right after he had the best game of his career with 314 passing yards, no turnovers, and 2 total touchdowns. Jared Dallos, freshman, stated, “Haskins should not have been benched, he just had his best game and is still developing.” 

Kyle Allen 

Kyle Allen knows the Washington Football Team playbook as he played with it just last year. For 2 weeks he was back up to now patriots QB, Cam Newton. Kyle Allen had started the 2019 season 5-1 but lost 7 of the last 8 games, ending the season for the Carolina Panthers with a 6-10 record. Kyle Allen only played 30 minutes of game time before he took a big hit from Rams DB Jalen Ramsey and got knocked out of the game with an arm injury. He had gone just 9/13 for 74 yards passing and a rush TD before exiting the game. 

Alex Smith 

Alex Smith has arguably the greatest football comeback story of all time. In week 11 of the 2018 season, Alex Smith suffered a compound fracture of his tibia and fibula. Not only did this threaten his football career, it also threatened his life. A compound fracture is when the bone is out of the skin which can lead to an infection that can be fatal called sepsis. He had to have a total of 17 surgeries to save his life and leg. At first, doctors were talking about amputating his leg before realizing the infection was in his entire bloodstream. A few doctors thought he was going to lose his life. Not only did he survive, he was also able to play in the NFL again. With Dwayne Haskins inactive for week 5 against the Rams, when Kyle Allen left the game with an injury, Alex Smith was next in line. He didn’t only come into the game, he was facing the best pass rusher in the league, Aaron Donald, with a lack-luster O-line. His wife and kids were in the stands and you could see the nervous wreck his wife was, and who wouldn’t be after what happened. Alex Smith ended up throwing for 34 yards in a crazy rainstorm, got sacked 6 times, and even carried Aaron Donald, a 300 lb man on his back for a few yards. 

With it looking like Washington is moving on from Dwayne Haskins, it is between Alex Smith and Kyle Allen the rest of the year. Ron Rivera stated that Kyle Allen would be starting week 6 against the New York Giants if healthy, but we will see how long that lasts.