Dwayne Haskins’ inconsistent mechanics affects his results

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September 4, 2019

by Steve Thomas

Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins during training camp.
Photo credit: James Scott

How did Dwayne Haskins do in the preseason?  We all saw him throw two interceptions in the first game against Cleveland, and then, at least at first glance, seemed to do more or less okay / pretty well for the remaining three games.  To find out if that initial impression was accurate, I went back and re-watched all of Haskins’ snaps in each of the four preseason games.  I don’t intend this to be one of my unreasonably long and exhaustive film studies (mainly because I didn’t want to spend all of Labor Day weekend writing it), but I do want to point out a couple of things.

First, Haskins’ arm is everything we thought it would be.  When he’s “on” and everything is working right, the ball virtually jumps off his hand in a way that we haven’t seen in DC in a very, very long time.  Second, his ability to read the field seems to be every bit as good as advertised and as he was when he was at Ohio St.  There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to be a quality quarterback for the Redskins.  It’s still early, clearly,  but Washington’s front office may have finally hit on a quarterback.  At least let’s hope.

He’s not perfect, though, obviously; otherwise, he’d be the Redskins starter right now and headed to the Hall of Fame.  Some time ago, during my quarterback draft analysis, I watched a YouTube film breakdown of Haskins at Ohio St. by Zac Shomler of Strong Opinion Sports (Click here to watch), and one of the things that Shomler pointed out was that at Ohio St., Haskins’ accuracy dropped when his footwork got out of alignment.  That’s a good input, and it made me wonder whether that problem would continue over into his professional career.  What I found is that Haskins is outstanding when his body is in sync and his footwork is aligned, but (like at Ohio St.) his accuracy suffered when things got out of whack, for lack of a better term.  Completing passes accurately under adverse conditions is something that every quality NFL quarterback needs to be able to do, because NFL defenses usually don’t allow for perfect conditions.

What I saw was that Haskins’ film got better and better each week in this regard.  He made several bad throws caused by poor technique in game 1 against the Browns, but was much better by week 4 against the Ravens.  Watch this series of plays – it’s short, I promise, only 2 minutes long:

The first play is Haskins’ pick 6 from the Cleveland game.  ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky broke down this play and pointed out that the receiver failed on his pick block:

However, I’d like to also point out that Haskins’ throw was flatfooted, with his weight on his back foot, which appears to cause the pass to be off target.

In the second play (also from the Browns game), Haskins is trying to hit tight end Matt Flanagan on a 20 yard crossing route (it’s impossible to see the specific pattern without the benefit of the All-22 film, which isn’t available in the preseason).  Notice that Haskins’ feet are pointed essentially to the running back in the shallow flat, but his body flattens out to aim at Flanagan, which causes his entire body to be out of sync with itself when the ball leaves his hand.  It’s no wonder that the pass was off target.

In the third play (the final play from the Cleveland game), Haskins is trying to hit Darvin Kidsy in the left flat.  As was the case in the prior play, Haskins’ body isn’t aligned with itself, which causes the throw to be short and behind.  If you stop the video right as the ball is about to leave his hand, you’ll see that his feet are pointed to the sidelines, but the upper half of his torso is trying to aim at Kidsy.  The pass was completed, but it wasn’t a very good ball from Haskins.

The fourth play is from game 2 against the Bengals.  Haskins is trying to throw a fade pass to Steven Sims, who’s running a vertical route near the right sideline.  Haskins barely transfers his weight in the midst of his throwing motion and doesn’t use his lower torso in the throw at all, so it’s not shocking that the throw is again off target.

The fifth play is from game 3 against Atlanta.  Haskins is trying to throw a simple dumpoff pass to the running back in the left flat.  Haskins doesn’t take the time to align his footwork towards his target, get his torso in sync with his feet, and properly transfer his weight during the throw.  Instead, he throws the ball flatfooted, off his back foot, and while his feet are pointed towards the sidelines.  He was not under pressure, and there was no reason why he couldn’t have taken a split second to correct his technique.  Once again, the pass was completed, but it was behind and short.

The sixth play is also from game 3 against the Falcons.  The Redskins are on the 5 yard line.  Steven Sims runs a (rounded off) square out to the left out of a bunch formation.  If you pause the video right as the ball is about to leave Haskins’ hand, you will see that his feet are once again not pointed towards his target, yet the upper half of his body is trying to twist towards his target. As a result, the throw is off-target, costing the Redskins a touchdown.  There was no pressure, so if Haskins had taken a split second to fix his feet, the throw most likely would’ve been on target and a touchdown.

The seventh and final play in this series is from game four against Baltimore.  In this play, Haskins has significant pressure bearing down on him right up the middle almost immediately, so he tries to dump the pass off to the receiver on an out route on the left side.  Because of the pressure, Haskins has to throw the ball flatfooted, with his feet parallel to the line of scrimmage, all with his upper body, without any torque.  Again, it’s not a surprise that the pass isn’t on target.  The point is that Haskins is going to have to figure out how to throw good balls under those conditions.

Now, to end on a good note, take another look at Haskins’ touchdown pass to Steven Sims against the Ravens:

The Redskins run play action with the running back going left while Haskins keeps the ball and rolls out to his right.  He has Cam Sims open shallow and Steven Sims breaking open in the end zone.  Haskins throws the ball deep to Steven Sims while on the run, off his back foot, with little follow through.  It isn’t a great pass, either, but it’s on target enough to allow Sims to make a play on the ball for a touchdown.

I’m not trying to nitpick Haskins too much – after all, he’s just a rookie and has plenty of time to get better.  I saw fewer and fewer throws with poor technique as each game went on, but it appears as though Shomler’s criticism of Haskins from Ohio St. is valid.  His off-target throws almost always happened when his body wasn’t in sync with his feet or when he didn’t properly use his entire body in the throw and transfer his weight from back to front during the throw.  He’ll need to get better at this, because the NFL doesn’t always allow for perfect technique.  As Shomler pointed out in his video, top NFL quarterbacks can do this on a regular basis.

Regardless, it was clear that Haskins made progress in just four short weeks (see the Sims touchdown against the Ravens, for example), so I hope we can look forward to many years of success in the seasons to come.

Do you have thoughts about Haskins?  Let me know in the comment section below.