Junkies: Rivera 'gambling with Kyle Allen' over Haskins originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
It took only four games for Ron Rivera to make the call and bench second-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
The Washington Football Team is 1-3, the NFC East is a train wreck and Kyle Allen will have a chance at perhaps sneaking this team into the playoffs as the 22nd starting quarterback for Washington under owner Dan Snyder.
Washington passed on other quarterbacks, Cam Newton and Tua Tagovailoa in particular, to give Haskins a chance to grow. Now that Rivera has benched him, it's up to Allen to play at a higher level.
As The Sports Junkies discussed on their show Wednesday, this is a gamble by Rivera.
"Definitely Riverboat Ron here, he's gambling," JP Flaim said. "He's gambling on Kyle Allen!"
What do we know about Allen? He's a third-year quarterback who went undrafted in 2018 and spent the first two years of his career with Rivera and Scott Turner in Carolina.
He came in for an injured Cam Newton last year and was excellent in his first four games. Allen completed over 65% of his passes for 901 yards, seven touchdowns and zero interceptions. Oh, and he was 4-0.
But then the wheels came off. Over his final 10 games, he threw 10 touchdowns to 16 interceptions and managed to win only one game.
"[Allen's] undrafted for a reason, he's a backup for a reason," Jason Bishop said.
It appears the rest of Washington's season might come down to which version of Allen they get. Will they see the player that shocked the league when there was limited tape on him in an offense lead by arguably the best running back in the game, or will they see the turnover-prone gunslinger?
If Washington gets the former, maybe Allen could make a little noise to stick around as the starter beyond this year.
"I think everyone writing off Kyle as a disaster is a little unfair to him because he's had good games. In fact he had a stretch of four or five really good games," Eric Bickel said. "He actually could take this job and run with it, he actually could. I don't think he necessarily will, but if Kyle Allen goes out there, and let's say they go 5-7 or something, that might keep the job."
But then again, probably not.
"They're most likely drafting a quarterback in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft," John Auville said. "How could they not?"
There's still plenty of uncertainty surrounding this team over the next 12 games of the season, but one thing is for sure. For better or worse, this team is never boring.
