Source: Panthers expressed interest in Dwayne Haskins, but no move is imminent
The Carolina Panthers are keeping their options open at quarterback.
The team expressed interest in former Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins, but according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, Carolina was doing its due diligence and the interest was exploratory in nature. There is not a expectation of anything between the Panthers and Haskins.
“I think right now, I’m going to just, as I kind of always do, I will probably just talk about this game and won’t talk about any players that are out there on other teams until it’s at least after the season,” Panthers head coach Matt Rhule said when asked about the team’s interest.
Haskins, the 15th overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft out of Ohio State, was waived by Washington on Monday after the team’s loss 20-13 loss to the Panthers. He was benched in the fourth quarter for former Carolina quarterback Taylor Heinicke.
In 16 games played over the past two years, Haskins completed 60.1% of his passes for 2,804 yards, 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He is 3-10 in his 13 starts.
Temple was among a significant number of schools to recruit Haskins, 23, in high school while Rhule and his staff were there.
“Any player in the Northeast, some of those guys that were highly recruited didn’t spend too much time talking to us,” Rhule said with a laugh. “We were maybe not at that level in terms of recruits, but I do have a lot of familiarity with a lot of ... I see a lot of guys every week that we recruited, played against or recruited against.”
Former Panthers coach Ron Rivera demoted Haskins to the third string behind Kyle Allen and Alex Smith earlier this season. He was also fined twice for COVID-19-related violations, including a $40,000 fine this past week after partying maskless following a loss to the Seattle Seahawks, as reported by The Washington Post. Haskins was also stripped of his captaincy in Week 16, but still started against the Panthers.
“This afternoon I met with Dwayne and informed him that we would be releasing him,” Rivera said in a statement on Haskins’ release Monday. “I told him that I believe it benefits both parties that we go our separate ways. We want to thank Dwayne for his contributions these last two seasons and wish him well moving forward.”
The Panthers’ quarterback room consists of Teddy Bridgewater, P.J. Walker and Will Grier. Walker started in the one game Bridgewater missed due to a knee injury. Overall, Bridgewater’s performance has been up and down, but his contract makes him an almost lock to be on the roster next season.
Team owner David Tepper said last week that the quarterback position will be evaluated this offseason.
“I think when you get to quarterbacks and NFL in general, you always want to try to figure out, do you have the best that’s in the position ... right now,” Tepper said. “And that’s constant evaluation and re-evaluation of that. And that’s what we’ll constantly go through.”
Haskins is in the process of finding a new agent after mutually agreeing to part ways with one of the league’s most prominent agents as of late, David Mulugheta. Carolina is in the process of hiring a new general manager after Marty Hurney was fired last week.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 2:13 PM.
