Ron Rivera's offseason insistence on running a QB competition ended 11 days before the season kicks off.
The Washington Football Team coach announced Wednesday that Dwayne Haskins is the starter for Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"Dwayne's lived up to everything we talked about in January," Rivera said, via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post.
Since taking over the Washington Football Team in January, Rivera has maintained Haskins must win the starting gig. From pre-draft dalliances with potential rookies during the NFL Scouting Combine, to the trade for Kyle Allen, to the repeated talk of Alex Smith joining a competition, Rivera never allowed Haskins to get comfortable.
Most of the talk -- particularly the insistence that Allen had a shot to unseat Haskins -- seemed a ploy to motivate the second-year quarterback, kick the QB's off-field habits into gear and keep him on edge. It appeared to work, as we've only heard positives about Haskins' work ethic and taking to the new offensive scheme.
As a rookie, Haskins had an up-and-down season. At times his big arm wowed as he fired lasers to Terry McLaurin and he showed steps getting through his progression. At others, he looked lost reading defenses, employed shoddy footwork and took far too many sacks. Washington hopes he's smoothed out most of the bumps heading into Year 2.
Haskins has the talent to be a stellar starting NFL quarterback if he puts the rest of the game together.
The second-year pro proved to the coaching staff he has what it takes to be the starter, even if all talks of Washington making any other decision were simple motivation tactics.
