Ron Rivera has no regrets about benching Dwayne Haskins originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Washington Football Team entered the 2020 NFL season with second-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins atop their quarterback depth chart. The 2019 first-round pick was coming off an up-and-down rookie year in which he showed promise, and fans had high hopes for his sophomore leap.
The leap never came, and after starting the first four games of the season, Haskins was demoted to third string by head coach Ron Rivera.
The quarterback shuffle hasn't led to an offensive resurgence for Washington, which has lost both games since inserting Kyle Allen into the starting role. On Friday, Rivera was asked if he had any regrets about making such a quick switch at the most important position.
"No, because Dwayne got all the reps for 11 weeks with the first unit," Rivera told ABC 7 News. "It gave me 11 weeks to evaluate him, and to look at him. And as I said, I made my decision based on what I saw. And that was a young man that's still raw, that still has a lot of work to do."
Rivera goes on to emphasize that on a roster with 53 other players, he can't just worry about one player's development during the course of a long season -- even a player as important to the franchise as Haskins.
"Now, I could let him continue to play," Rivera said. "But what about the other 52 guys? What about those guys? So this year was just to develop one player? I can't do that to the other guys. That's why I made the decision I made. I'm thinking about those guys too. And based on where we are as a division, these are games that if we go out and play well, we got a chance to win, and make an impact in this division and we'll see what happens."
Haskins completed just 61% of his passes in his four starts, throwing four touchdowns and three interceptions. But for Rivera, it's not just about one player's stats.
"There's a lot that I have to think about, there's a lot that I have to decide," Rivera said. "So I have to think about all of these decisions. I'm not going willy-nilly. I mean this is thoughtful stuff. This is the way I look at things."
