Washington’s season got a whole lot more interesting on Wednesday. First-year head coach Ron Rivera decided to bench second-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins in favor of former Carolina Panthers signal caller Kyle Allen. This move is thrusting Washington into full-scale win-now mode.
Washington benches Dwayne Haskins
Fans have been calling on the benching of Haskins for a few weeks now, and they finally get what they wanted. The NFC East is up for grabs with Washington being right in the thick of things only a game out of first place.
Rivera senses a window in the upcoming schedule with games coming up against the Rams, Giants (twice) and the Cowboys. Rivera understands if Washington goes 3-1 or even 2-2 in the next four games, it might be able to run away with the division.
This is a difficult position for the young Washington team as it wanted to give the team’s 2019 first-round draft pick a full season to develop. However, the season has not gone as expected and there is a legitimate shot for Washington to make the playoffs.
Haskins has made a lot of mistakes through the first four games of the season, but is Kyle Allen an improvement? Washington traded for Allen this past offseason, and this has to be one of the things it had in mind when the trade was made. Allen’s career record is 6-7 with 19 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. He’s also only completed just over 62% of passes and threw for over 3,500 yards. Not only is Haskins benched, but he is also No. 3 on the depth chart. Alex Smith will be the team’s backup quarterback in Week 5.
Allen will face Los Angles this coming Sunday. It will be a tall task for Allen to come in and play well versus Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald. However, Allen has had time to learn on the sidelines. Rivera is banking on him taking this young Washington team to the top of the NFC East.