At least one offensive lineman isn't miffed about a sideline exchange with rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
Video from NBC 4 Washington from Sunday's loss to the New York Jets showed Haskins imploring his offensive line: "What do I have to do to help you? What do I have to do?"
Most of the linemen in the video seem uninterested in what the young quarterback has to say, but right tackle Morgan Moses said Haskins wasn't trying to assign blame, but rather work through the on-field issues.
"It wasn't him coming to us saying, 'Hey you guys need to block better,'" Moses told Kareem Copeland of the Washington Post. "It was him trying to figure out, he knows we're a veteran group and we've seen a lot of things. The things that he can't see, maybe we can see. I explained to him, like: 'Hey, bro, we're in a five-man protection and they're bringing seven. There's nothing that we can do.' We blocked the five, [but] there's another two that's free wherever they're coming from. With that understanding, we have to have something in place to handle that."
Haskins remains a work in progress in every aspect. One issue is the rookie getting through his progression slowly, which doesn't help behind an offensive line that has struggled to block for whoever is under center. Haskins was sacked six times and threw an INT in Sunday's blowout loss.
The initial public response to the sideline video was that the Redskins could have an issue brewing, with the O-line not appreciating the young signal-caller calling them out.
Moses, for his part, repels that discussion, suggesting Haskins was looking for guidance rather than placing blame.
"He's a young quarterback and he wants to be great. It's a sucky situation," Moses said. "I knew when he came over there his intentions. And everybody else might not have known, but I knew what he was asking. It wasn't, 'You guys have got to do better.' It was, 'Hey, help me feel this out because I need some direction.' That's what we're here for, as veterans and guys that have been here and been in the league and seen all these exotic looks -- to help him figure this out and figure it out together."
Whether the rest of the struggling O-line views the exchange that way remains to be seen.
With the Redskins authoring a dismal season, and every phase, from the line to the QB to the coaching, struggling, frustration boiling over is understandable. How Haskins and the team respond from here will be telling for Washington's future.
