Report: Washington to bench Haskins

October 7, 2020

by Steve Thomas

As initially reported by ESPN’s Ian Rapoport, Washington head coach Ron Rivera has decided to bench quarterback Dwayne Haskins in favor of backup Kyle Allen:

Sources: The Washington Football Team is making a QB change. Kyle Allen will get the start vs. the #Rams, while former starter Dwayne Haskins goes to the bench.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 7, 2020

This news was confirmed by NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay and ESPN’s John Keim.

In his career, Haskins has played in 13 games, starting 11, with 208 completions in 349 attempts for a 59.6% completion percentage, 2,304 yards, 11 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and a 77.8 quarterback rating.

Allen has played in 15 games, starting 13, with 323 completions in 520 attempts for a 62.1% completion percentage, 3,588 yards, 19 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, and an 82.0 quarterback rating.  He was a 2018 undrafted free agent out of the University of Houston who spent the first two years of his career with Rivera in Carolina and started in place of the injured Cam Newton for 2 games in 2018 and 13 games in 2019.

The big-picture question for Haskins will be whether this move is temporary or whether Rivera has elected to move on for good from the team’s 2019 first round pick.

We will update this column as the story develops.