It was just back in 2019 when Dwayne Haskins was a first-round pick for the Washington Football Team. Fast forward to now in 2021, and Haskins is battling Mason Rudolph for the backup gig with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While it certainly isn't the route Haskins expected to be on, he has embraced his new role and looked great for the Steelers against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night. Head coach Mike Tomlin echoed those thoughts, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“I thought he was in command tonight,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “He did a great job communicating with people, going through his progressions. There was a third-down play, third-and-8 maybe, and I saw him go through three or four reads and throw the ball over the middle of the field and converted for us. That was a snapshot of the night he had.”

Both Rudolph and Haskins are squaring off to be the backup to Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh. When the WFT let go of Haskins in 2020, it was a sneaky pickup by the Steelers at the time who knew they would still have Big Ben, but still saw some promise and potential in the 2019 first-rounder, Haskins.

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
Steelers, NFL Draft, Mel Kiper Jr., Graham Barton, Duke football, Graham Barton and Steelers logo with Steelers stadium in the background

Scotty White ·

Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan next to Pittsburgh Steelers edge defender Alex Highsmith. Khan has a speech bubble that says “Thank you, Alex.”

Ben Strauss ·

Courtland Sutton wearing a Steelers jersey next to a Steelers logo

Dan Fappiano ·

Haskins went 16-22 for 161 yards and a touchdown for the Steelers on Thursday night and those are solid numbers for any quarterback seeing spot time in the preseason.

It's not where he thought he'd be at in his career at this stage but Dwayne Haskins is soaking up every opportunity with the Steelers and just might win the backup gig when the preseason is all said and done.