In the days leading up to Sunday’s game against the Giants, Washington head coach Jay Gruden was asked several times about possibly turning to Dwayne Haskins at quarterback.
Gruden said he wasn’t ready to move to the first-round pick because the season’s “not lost,” which suggested Haskins was not ready to be in the lineup. Gruden shifted a bit to say that the rookie was “not far away” and he wound up turning to Haskins in the first half of Sunday’s game.
Haskins led the team to a field goal on his first drive, but ended the day 9-of-17 for 107 yards and three interceptions. He said he had “a whole bunch of emotions” about making his regular season debut and said that better things will come the team’s way in the future.
“I just knew that my time would be coming and when the day comes, that I’d be ready for it,” Haskins said, via the Washington Post. “I didn’t execute the way I wanted to, but the good thing about it is that it hurts, and there [are] going to be brighter days tomorrow. . . . I want to win. I’m going to win. Whatever it takes to win, we will do that. . . . We’re going to change that and win some games. I’ll be here for a while, so get used to seeing me smile up here.”
When those brighter days might be remains to be seen. Gruden stopped well short of naming Haskins the starter for Week Five, saying, among other things, that a quarterback is “not handed the keys because of where you’re drafted.”