Dwayne Haskins got a raw deal
Plus, Week 5 picks, and RVB's five favorite Grateful Dead shows
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Someone rescue Dwayne Haskins
Dwayne Haskins was drafted by the Washington Football Team. This was his first problem.
The most prolific single-season passer in Big Ten history — by a significant margin — slid to the 15th pick of the 2019 NFL Draft to a team that exists solely in a state of panic. Washington added him to a roster set to pay Alex Smith $23.5 million annually through 2022 even before his career-threatening leg injury. They stuck him behind an offensive line missing Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams, whose holdout stemmed from the franchise’s continued excellence in the field of doing nothing right.
Washington was not Ohio State, and it showed. The young quarterback was dead last among qualified starters with a 76.1 passer rating as a rookie. Modest improvement followed in year two, but it wasn’t enough. After four weeks and a 1-3 record, head coach Ron Rivera announced Haskins hasn’t only no longer his starter, but that he’d been demoted all the way to No. 3 on the depth chart.
It’s a move that may signal the end of the Haskins era in D.C. after only 11 starts, three wins, and three head coaches. And it may signal an opportunity for a quarterback-needy team to buy low on a 23-year-old quarterback with vast amounts of untapped NFL potential.
Why is the Football Team cutting bait on a first-round QB after less than a full season of starts?
In 2020, Haskins has been better than some of his peers. He’s been, arguably, the second-best passer in the NFC East thanks to epic bed-wettings in New York and Philadelphia. He’s also been better than Sam Darnold, whose struggles are endemic of the Adam Gase experience. Haskins hasn’t been good, but from an efficiency standpoint he’s not the obvious choice to be the second starter benched after Mitchell Trubisky.
Let’s take a closer look at how the Washington QB matches up with Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who was selected nine spots in front of him in 2019. Jones plays in a similarly dire and perpetually unfixed lineup and mostly sucks at it. He has half as many touchdown passes (two to four), nearly twice as many interceptions (five to three) and a passer rating a full dozen points lower than his Washington counterpart (68.3 to 80.3).
Yet Jones remains entrenched as the starter in New York. There are a couple reasons why.
The first is that Jones has shown the higher ceiling as an NFL quarterback. He’s been the more explosive player — three games as a rookie with at least four touchdown passes — and much more effective as a scrambler and runner (416 rush yards to Haskins’ 131). He also tends to get a little extra forgiveness for issues around him like shoddy blocking and depleted pass catching corps that sometimes gets overlooked with Haskins.
The second reason? Jones also has a completely unthreatening backup who is absolutely not the answer to any franchise’s woes behind center: Colt McCoy.
McCoy, coincidentally, was Haskins’ backup in Washington last fall. He started one game due to injury, threw zero touchdown passes, and had a 61.0 passer rating. He is 34 years old and has a career record of 7-21. He is an emergency option the same way an umbrella is an emergency option for someone falling off a tall building. Signing him in the offseason is the football equivalent of bestowing a crown on whichever quarterback stands above him on the depth chart.
Washington didn’t have such confidence in its young QB. Two months after hiring Rivera, the Football Team traded a fifth-round pick for Carolina passer Kyle Allen, who started 11 games under Rivera (and 13 total) as Cam Newton’s backup the previous two seasons. Smith, who’d only lost his starting role due to the complete and utter devastation of his tibia, remained on the depth chart as well. Haskins was being trailed by wolves. The Washington roster around him snipped his hamstrings before he could put any distance between them.
Why buy low on Haskins when he’s been so bad?
Any discussion of Haskins must come with a caveat; the team around him suuuuuuucks.
His offensive line has allowed him to be sacked on 10.7 percent of his career dropbacks, though he’s been able to stay more upright in 2020. His top target is former Buckeye teammate Terry McLaurin, who had a breakthrough year in Haskins’ lone season as a starter in Columbus. In the games they’ve played together, McLaurin has put up a 16-game pace of 81 catches, 1,233 yards, and 9.9 yards per target. That’s good!
Then you get to the rest of his lineup. Since 2019, Washington quarterbacks have a passer rating of 113.4 when targeting McLaurin. That number drops to 79.6 when Haskins and company throws to anyone else. That’s bad!
That group is not only awful, but almost unrecognizable from the previous campaign. Twelve players earned at least nine targets in 2019. Only two of them — McLaurin and Steven Sims — have recorded a catch in 2020. Key contributors like Paul Richardson and Trey Quinn aren’t even on active rosters this fall. In their place is a lineup of skill players who, to a man, each make less in 2020 than the team’s punter.
The offensive line came into 2020 ranked 29th in the league per Pro Football Focus, then lost its only Pro Bowler to injury when Brandon Scherff hit injured reserve due to a knee injury. If you’re keeping track of all the things working in Washington’s favor, the Football Team currently has:
Terry McLaurin
a pretty good front seven and pass rush
one good offensive lineman who has missed half his team’s games this season
a very short list of things going right for it.
This is all brutal for a dropback quarterback with the arm talent (and funky delivery) to avoid pressure and throw strikes downfield, but not perform miracles.
Those skills haven’t disappeared, they’re just dormant in the wrong environment. Haskins can still thrive as long as his short tenure in the nation’s capital hasn’t left him irreparably broken.
So who could be in the trade market — something like a Day 2 pick, if Josh Rosen’s recent history holds up — for Haskins should Washington dangle him in talks? Any team with a veteran quarterback at the helm and an uncertain future could fit the bill. The Steelers need to find Ben Roethlisberger’s successor. His current backup, Mason Rudolph, is best known for getting bonked in the head with his own helmet. The Colts have re-energized Philip Rivers, but he’s at the end of his career and former starter/current No. 2 Jacoby Brissett will be a free agent next spring.
The Lions know the value of a high-value backup behind Matthew Stafford after going 0-8 without him last season. The Eagles won’t be getting out from under Carson Wentz’s contract anytime soon and have a need for a cheap, viable backup who can push Wentz for playing time like Nick Foles once did. The Jets could be in the market to break another blue chip quarterback from a prestigious football program should Darnold win enough games to take them out of the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes.
No matter who steps up, they could be getting a bargain of a reclamation project. Haskins may need some time to adjust, similar to how Teddy Bridgewater rehabilitated his career as a starter by backing up Drew Brees in New Orleans (does this mean getting drafted by Washington is the same as a catastrophic leg injury? Yes. Yes it does). In the right setting, he can be a Pro Bowl quarterback. In the wrong one, he can get benched by Kyle Allen. — CD
Bears vs. Bucs, in five words or fewer
Tom Brady forgot the down
Week 5 picks
We’re only one game into Week 5, and it’s already shaping up to be a doozy. Two games have been moved due to Covid-19 — Broncos-Patriots to Monday and Bills-Titans to Tuesday. It’s possible either or both could be postponed until another week if more players test positive for the virus.
And for the fourth time this season, we’re left wondering, “how the hell did the Bears just win that game?”
The Buccaneers led the Bears most of Thursday night, but settling for field goals came back to haunt them when Nick Foles (and a bad call against Shaq Barrett) engineered a late drive to give Chicago a 20-19 lead and, a minute later, the win.
I don’t know what kind of magic Foles has against Tom Brady (and in one-point games at Soldier Field that are decided by field goal attempts), but it’s clear we underestimated his powers. Our entire panel missed on that one like the refs missed the Germain Ifedi false start.
Maybe we’ll do better in the other 12 to 14 games this week? Given the way this week has started, we probably all better prepare for chaos.
Our guest picker this week is Luke Zimmermann. Luke is an ardent short-term high-volatility NFL investment specialist and plays in a fantasy football league with 35-man rosters where every player is a keeper with multiyear contracts and a real-to-life salary cap.
He has been a Houston Texans fan since their inception. Before that, he rooted for the Cowboys until they fired Jimmy Johnson, news that made him cry at the dinner table when he found out. Then, he adopted the Oilers until they moved, the Panthers during Dom Capers’ run, and Tony Dungy’s Bucs.
He was also, apparently, a Saints fan as a baby, as evidenced by this photo courtesy of his mom:
Baby Luke would be pleased that we’re all on board with the Saints, one of 13 games our entire panel agreed on this week. — SH
The “what if my subconscious knows something I don’t?” pick: Rams vs. Washington
Once I make my picks, I normally don’t change any of them, out of both superstition and laziness. This week, however, I’ve changed three picks. I initially went with the Dolphins to upset the 49ers, but since then, Jimmy Garoppolo and Raheem Mostert have returned to practice (and perhaps the lineup) and I feel better about the 49ers’ chances of rebounding following their Sunday night loss to the Eagles.
My first instinct was to take the Titans over the Bills. I thought the extra time off might help the Titans, and while I think the Bills are a pretty good team, they feel due for a loss soon. Then I saw how many Tennessee players 1) were on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and 2) broke protocol, and I switched to the Bills — if this game will even be played.
Finally, to the game this section is supposed to be about: Rams at Washington. I had every intention on typing in “Rams,” and I thought I had, until an hour later when I looked at my picks and saw “Washington” in the cell instead. I have no memory of doing this. Did I black out? Do I have another personality? Is my brain permanently broken from being online too much, making it all too easy for me to forget something I *just* did? (Probably that last one, since this happens to me at least three times a day.)
I was going to stick with Washington too, as an experiment of sorts. Maybe my subconscious was trying to tell me something. After all, the Rams didn’t play a great game against the Giants last week and in general struggle on the East Coast. Once Ron Rivera decided to bench Dwayne Haskins for Kyle Allen, though, I had no choice but to go back to the Rams. If I’m wrong, oh well. Washington doesn’t deserve my pick. #FreeDwayne — SH
The “I cannot, in good conscience, pick the Falcons” pick: Panthers vs. Falcons
Atlanta has the better team on paper, and Matt Ryan should carve up the league’s 26th-ranked passing defense with or without Julio Jones on the field. The Falcons *should* win this game. But they *should* have won games against the Cowboys and Bears, so here they sit at 0-4.
The biggest advantage the Panthers will have comes from an ascending Teddy Bridgewater and a Panthers receiving corps that‘s been better than expected. D.J. Moore hasn’t been prolific, but he’s on pace for an 1,100-yard season. Robby Anderson, released from Adam Gase’s dampening influence the past two years, has emerged as a top wideout in Moore’s place.
Through four games he’s caught 28 of the 34 targets Bridgewater has thrown his way, in part because head coach Matt Rhule is using him as an intermediate target rather than running him deep into double coverage time and time again — his average target depth has fallen from 15.2 yards as a Jet to 9.1 yards as a Panther. This strategy is working wonders; he’s currently trending toward a 112-catch, 1,500-yard campaign.
That’s all very unfortunate news for a Falcons secondary that knows misfortune very well. Atlanta came into the season rated poorly in passing defense, then shed players like Kendall Sheffield, Ricardo Allen, A.J. Terrell, Damontae Kazee, and Darqueze Dennard early in the season due to injury or Covid concerns. First-round pick Terrell will return from the exempt list this week, which is good. He gave up eight catches in nine targets in his first two games as a pro, however, which is bad.
My gut says Falcons. My brain says Panthers. Brain — and Carolina — wins. — CD
The “50-50” pick: Colts vs. Browns
This is the most pick ‘em game of the week, according to Vegas and our panel. Both teams are 3-1 and are riding three-game winning streaks. The Browns are coming off their best offensive performance in over a decade, while the Colts have the NFL’s stingiest defense.
Their resumes are similar enough. The Colts hold wins over the Vikings (eh), Jets (duh), and Bears (who even knows), plus a loss to the Jaguars (eek). The Browns’ wins came against the Bengals (makes sense), Washington (same), and Cowboys (hmmm), with a loss to the Ravens (a blowout too).
How good are these two teams, though? That’s the real question, and I don’t know. But I think we’ll have a much better idea after Sunday. And since my future self has not gifted me with a copy of the Grays Sports Almanac (yet …), I have to make my pick based on a gut reaction. So I asked myself: which team do I trust more? Right now, that’s the Colts.
There’s also the witch skin hat curse to consider. Philip Rivers’ Colts have never lost the same week as the Chargers. Because we’re all predicting the Chargers to lose to the Saints, then the Colts have to win or else my theory is total baloney. I refuse to accept that! — SH
Fall is a great time to enjoy the Grateful Dead
Every Deadhead has their own connection to the band. During Laramie, Wyoming, winters, which started in October and ran through May, my friends Brian and Tony and I would sit in Brian’s ‘77 short box Chevy Silverado with the heater cranked, clambaking the shit out of it, and listening to American Beauty. Or throwing on Europe ‘72 for a road trip to Sheridan.
I’ve only listened to the Dead more and more since then, but it’s taken on a whole new significance in 2020, which as you may have heard has not been a great year. But it is the 50th anniversary of American Beauty, and not that you need a news peg to enjoy the Dead, but that album is particularly relevant to me in what’s been, personally, a pretty fucking terrible period.
When I was young and homesick or struggling with whatever kind of crises life threw at me in my twenties, I’d call my grandpa. We’d talk it through, and I’d feel better, somehow resolved to deal with whatever curveball was tripping me up. For a lot of reasons — too busy, life’s other responsibilities, the uncomfortable ease with which I can swallow and compartmentalize pain—I just kind of pressed on, leaving the grieving and sadness for later. (I’m also waiting for when I can safely access psychedelics, in all seriousness, because of my own experience and what we know now about the science, I really believe there’s power in psychedelic drugs to unlock parts of your subconscious mind and help guide us to a deeper understanding of who we are, how we process trauma, and draw out the connection between our mind and emotions.)
So here we are. I moved my family across the country for a job that I’ve since lost (tho, I don’t miss the job itself… it was a bad environment and pretty dull), financial stress triggers childhood memories of my parents struggling from time to time to pay bills, my son had a rough transition to starting a new school, someone hit my car, there’s a deadly disease spreading, and the country’s long past the point of there being anything hopeful to hang onto.
There’s a heaviness perfectly balanced with joyfulness, acceptance, in so many of the words and sounds in the Dead’s catalog, especially on American Beauty, an album they were in the process of making when Jerry’s mom died, Phil’s dad died, their manager ran off with a bunch of money, and so on.
A long time to be gone, and a short time to be there. I think about those words a lot, the comfort that comes with knowing that sadness is just something we have to live with, and to do that, we have to be able to find love and joy in everything else we do.
I wish I could talk to my grandpa now. But I can’t. I can, however, be thankful that I have my family amidst all this confusion and tragedy and heartbreak. And I can fire up one of these fine shows, get lost for a while in Jerry’s words and Hunter’s lyrics (sometimes even Bob’s cowboy songs, but less so with Bob’s Chuck Berry stuff). I listen to the Grateful Dead because they make me feel good, what else can you really ask of music?
And here are five of my (current) favorite live Dead shows that will make you feel good too.
5. 1-31-1970, The Warehouse, New Orleans, LA.
It’s hard to find a real quality recording of this show, but the audio quality doesn’t diminish one of the weirder Dead shows. First, this year saw an incredible level of creative output. This is the year they were writing and recording songs for Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. It’s the transition from a psychedelic rock band to the cosmic folk sound that defined them for the early part of their most productive decade.
They’re forced to go full country and roots here because Phil’s amp blows up on them — they were literally getting shocked by it. And despite several attempts to save it, they finally ditch it entirely and go acoustic. There's a quick, but haunting version of “Dire Wolf” they belt out right after the amp first blows. They get things working again in time to play a good version of “Morning Dew,” with an incredible sonic riff for the bridge (the 4:10 mark). They finally unplug for a full-on country show in the second set with a mournful version of “Long Black Limousine” and Bobby belting out a version of “Sawmill” that’s certified hoedown worthy.
Oh, this is also the show they played right after getting busted in New Orleans, an event immortalized in “Truckin’” and you can even hear Bobby complaining about the local cops during the show.
4. 1-11-1979, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
I found this one looking for some tasty versions of “Jack Straw,” and this one delivers on that, with a slightly sped up version and a mindblowing Jerry solo that bleeds right into “Deal.” The highlight is the second set, which features an long ass jam that kicks off with “Estimated Prophet > He’s Gone” and concludes with one of my favorite versions of one of my favorite Dead songs “Stella Blue.”
3. 5-2-1970, Hapur College, Binghamton, NY
This show has been released commercially as Dick’s Picks, Vol. 8, which was also the very first Dick’s Picks CD I bought. The Dead didn’t do many acoustic sets. You don’t really build the Wall of Sound to play acoustic sets. I love “Cumberland Blues” on this one; it’s peppy and fun. The slowed down version of “Friend of the Devil” is great too, one of those classic Robert Hunter songs that sounds like a folk ballad from 150 years ago about a quintessential American hustler.
2. 5-7-1977, Boston Garden, Boston, MA.
I could put the entire month of May 1977 on here. I don’t know what it is about that month, but the band is at an incredible peak of live playing prowess, and their tour of the Northeast that spring is all delicious (sandwiched between some great shows in NYC and the Fox Theatre in Atlanta). The Cornell show is probably most revered out of this holy month, and that was commercially released a few years back. But for me, it’s this show. Jerry played “Peggy-O” pretty regularly on this tour, and this version really stands out to me in just how heavy it is, and how he draws it out into a perfect nine-minute jam. “Terrapin Station” is another highlight, as is “Mississippi Half-Step.” It’s a show that’s really heavy with those haunting Jerry ballads that, fuck man, can break me down whether I’m out running or dodging semis on I-40. “Eyes of the World” is another gem here.
1. 2-19-1971, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY
This one of Jerry’s favorite venues because of the acoustics in the theatre, and whenever the Dead played there, they left it all out on the field. This show features live debuts of FIVE songs, “Bertha,” “Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Loser,” “Playing in The Band,” and “Wharf Rat.” The first one, “Bertha,” is a personal fave, and there’s even an extra cord and verse on the end that wouldn’t be there in future iterations of the song. The best part of this show is the “Dark Star > Wharf Rat > Dark Star” jam, which sends me to a cosmic plane every time I listen to it. Seriously, it’s one of the best “Dark Star” jams in the band’s history.
This show is going to be released with American Beauty’s 50th anniversary edition, an original soundboard recording too. — RVB
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