With Haskins under center, it’s time to re-imagine the passing game
April 26, 2019
by Alex Zeese
With the signing of Dwayne Haskins, the Redskins have begun the process of recreating their offense, potentially having found a franchise quarterback who, if it all goes right, will be “the guy” for the next 10 to 15 seasons. However, this is just the first step of this process for the Redskins offense. Now that they have a quarterback, the team needs to build an offense around him that fits his skill set. Haskins is a very different type of player than the team’s most recent signal callers.
Haskins has a cannon for an arm and his skill set is better suited for a vertical offense. This doesn’t really fit the kind of roster the Redskins have built over the last few seasons. With Alex Smith, Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy, the Redskins passing game was all about the underneath weapons, high percentage, dink and dunk passing, with the occasional deep shot to a player like Paul Richardson or Desean Jackson. The top weapons in the last few seasons have typically been athletic tight ends like Vernon Davis and Jordan Reed.
Contrast that with the top receiving targets for Ohio State last year. The top targets are all very similar players. First, Haskins’ leading pass catchers last year were all wide receivers. Parris Campbell had 90 catches for 1063 yards and 12 touchdowns. KJ Hill had 70 receptions for 885 yards and 6 touchdowns. Johnnie Dixon had 42 receptions for 669 yards and 8 touchdowns, and Terry McLaurin had 35 catches for 701 yards and 11 touchdowns. The fifth most frequently targeted player on that roster was a running back, and you have to go all the way down to the 9th guy statistically to find a tight end.
There is also clearly a specific type of receiver that Haskins was throwing to: every one of these guys fit the same mold of what we would consider a Z receiver, as some folks like Steve like to call it, or a speed receiver if you prefer to think of it in those terms. All of them are shorter players, 5’11” to 6’1″ in height, none of them over 210 pounds and all were burners. Campbell and McLaurin both have 40 times listed in the sub 4.4 range, and Dixon’s time was just a hair over 4.4. Hill was the slowpoke at 4.59 seconds.
That’s a very different type of receiver than who the Redskins front office has brought in of late. For example, Josh Doctson is bigger and his strength is beating a cornerback with strength and jumping ability, not winning a foot race.
Part of this is simply based on the kind of players that Ohio State liked to recruit, but clearly, if you look at those numbers, it was the formula for success with Haskins. If that’s a style of play that works for Dwayne, why try and change things? The Redskins would be smart to put in some real work into re-fitting this offense to fit that mold by focusing less on Josh Doction types and more Paul Richardsons. This is not to say you can’t get some use out of Davis, Doctson, and Reed, as they are all athletic players who can get downfield and help the quarterback. Right now, though, the Redskins only have one or two wide receivers that fit that mold of deep threat speedsters that made Haskins so dangerous.