Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins has made seven appearances and five starts this season, and while it's still far too early to jump to any conclusions, we can evaluate his performance in the early stages of his career.
On the season, Haskins has thrown for 971 yards, three touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 55 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 61.2.
Not exactly impressive numbers.
Haskins' best outing probably came in Week 11, when he completed 19 of his 35 throws for 214 yards, a couple of touchdowns and a pick in a loss to the New York Jets.
Otherwise, he has failed to eclipse the 200-yard mark in any of his appearances, and he also hasn't had another game where he threw more touchdowns than interceptions.
Obviously, the first-year signal-caller is going through some significant growing pains, and the fact that he is on a terrible team with limited weapons doesn't exactly help the matter.
The Redskins have an interesting group of young receivers in Terry McLaurin, Kelvin Harmon, Paul Richardson and Trey Quinn, but none of them are proven at this point. McLaurin looks like a potential stud, but it's still early.
As for tight ends? There is third-year pro Jeremy Sprinkle, who has logged 19 catches on the year.
So, yeah; Haskins does not have a ton to work with, and to make things even more complicated, his offensive line has allowed him to be sacked 22 times already.
Now, to be fair, some of that does fall on Haskins' shoulders for not identifying blitzes and holding on to the football too long. He is also not all that fleet afoot.
Regardless, Haskins could certainly use some better protection, as the Ohio State product suffered a sprained ankle after being sacked in the first half against the Green Bay Packers this past weekend.
There is no doubt that Haskins has a cannon for an arm and may even be a bit more mobile than he was billed coming out of college, but he also has a lot to learn.
It seems pretty clear right now that he is a couple of steps behind peers Kyler Murray and Daniel Jones, both of whom were chosen ahead of him in the NFL Draft back in April. Also, second-round pick Drew Lock has looked really good in his first couple of starts.
But it's not always fair to put rookies up against their contemporaries when evaluating them, so we will leave the out of the discussion for now (even though it will always come up whenever conversations are had about Haskins).
All things considered, it's really hard to gauge Haskins' first seven games, because he is playing on a really bad team that changed coaches in the middle of the season.
I don't think anyone will question Haskins' potential, but his early returns aren't all that encouraging.
The biggest problem for Haskins may be that he is quarterbacking a franchise that has been among the NFL's worst for the last couple of decades, which could put a cap on his ceiling.
We definitely need a full season out of Haskins before we can really evaluate him, but the Redskins also need to do a better job of supplying this kid with the appropriate talent (and coaching staff) to allow him to flourish.
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