Dwayne Haskins in Carolina? What you need to know about QB’s upcoming visit with Panthers
Former Washington Football Team quarterback Dwayne Haskins is planning to visit with the Carolina Panthers this Monday, per league sources with knowledge of the information.
Haskins, the 15th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft out of Ohio State, was waived by Washington on Dec. 28, a day after the team’s 20-13 loss to the Panthers. He was benched in the fourth quarter for former Carolina quarterback Taylor Heinicke.
While he went unclaimed on waivers, the Panthers were among several teams to express interest in the quarterback days after Washington had moved on from him. The visit is exploratory in a nature and it does not necessarily mean the team will sign him. If the team opts to sign Haskins, it is expected to be for the opportunity to compete for a backup job.
The visit was first reported by NFL Network.
Carolina is currently in the process of determining the team’s next general manager with the team conducting interviews over the last week. While Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has said that he does not want general manager responsibilities, the timing of the visit is interesting considering the new GM has not yet been hired. Rhule is expected to have a role in personnel decisions.
The Panthers’ offensive staff is also in flux. The team is currently without a quarterbacks coach as Jake Peetz became the offensive coordinator at LSU this past week. Two additional offensive assistants are departing for SEC jobs — DJ Mangas and Marcus Satterfield — and offensive coordinator Joe Brady has interviewed for multiple NFL head coaching jobs since the season concluded.
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 as a starter.
Temple was among a significant number of schools to recruit Haskins, 23, in high school while Rhule and his staff were there. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, Haskins’ former offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at the school, and Rhule were both assistant coaches at Temple in 2006.
“Any player in the Northeast, some of those guys that were highly recruited didn’t spend too much time talking to us,” Rhule said when asked about recruiting Haskins last month. “We were maybe not at that level in terms of recruits. I see a lot of guys every week that we recruited, played against or recruited against.”
In 2018, Haskins was a Heisman Trophy finalist. He finished that season for the Buckeyes completing 70% of his passes for an average of 345.1 yards per game, 50 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Former Panthers coach Ron Rivera demoted Haskins to the third string behind Kyle Allen and Alex Smith during the regular season. He was also fined twice for COVID-19-related violations, including a $40,000 fine after partying maskless following a loss to the Seattle Seahawks in December, as reported by The Washington Post. Haskins was also stripped of his captaincy in Week 16, but still started against the Panthers.
Throughout his first season in the NFL, Rhule has preached the importance of establishing a certain culture of dependability and a focus on football in Carolina, which seemingly contradicts with some of Haskins’ recent behavior. Panthers practice squad cornerback Josh Hawkins was released soon after images came out of him on social media partying without a mask. Multiple Panthers were fined by the team for breaking COVID-19 protocols in December.
“You want to kind of build this culture of competition, where everyone’s holding themselves accountable to get just a little bit better every day,” Rhule said about building the team. “.. What we need is we need a work ethic and a toughness and a brand.”
The Panthers’ quarterback room consists of Teddy Bridgewater, P.J. Walker, Will Grier and Tommy Stevens. Walker started in the one game Bridgewater missed due to a knee injury. Overall, Bridgewater’s performance decreased in the second half of the season, but he is likely to remain on the roster in 2021 due to his contract, which would leave the Panthers with $20 million in dead cap if he was cut. Rhule declined to confirm that Bridgewater would be the starter in 2021.
“Teddy has to have a tremendous offseason. It’s been a long time since he’s played an entire year. And part of being a quarterback in this league is being able to withstand the physical toll of the season, and playing your best football at the end of the year,” Rhule said this week. “I don’t know that I’ve seen that from him.”
With the Panthers holding the eighth overall pick, they will be out of contention for the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft unless they trade up.
Team owner David Tepper said last month that the quarterback position will 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.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2021 at 8:49 AM.
