Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden has been taken to task for playing first-round draft pick and quarterback Dwayne Haskins against the New York Giants.
Redskins Nation has been wanting to see the former Ohio State star this season but not at the expense of trotting him out to show he’s not ready.
Last week against the New York Giants on the road at MetLife Stadium, Case Keenum – who started the first four games of the season – struggled mightily against the Giants and was pulled in the second quarter. That made way for Haskins to enter the contest and get his first-ever regular-season action as a pro.
Haskins struggled throughout the contest and threw two interceptions. This is where Gruden took on a lot of criticism.
Why play the rookie if he was not ready?
Even as Keenum struggled, the veteran QB had thrown for two 300 yards games this season. The Redskins offense looked disjointed but Keenum could have finished the contest. He played despite having a walking boot on after a Week 3 Monday Night loss to the Chicago Bears. Make no mistake about it, however, Keenum’s pride was hurting a lot more than his leg about his benching.
On Wednesday while talking to team media at the INOVA Sports Performance Center at Redskins Park, Gruden was non-committal about who the starter would be – At least publicly.
“I said I’m not going to name one right now,” Gruden candidly said. “We have three, actually. But I said I’m not going to name one right now. It’s early in the week, Case is still in a boot right now and obviously, Colt, I need to see what he can do as far as getting a little bit more reps in his repertoire and Dwayne, as well.”
Ironically, Colt McCoy who has always been held in high regard by Gruden has a legitimate chance to be the starter against the New England Patriots. All bets are leaning to the former Texas product indeed being named the starter as early as Thursday.
Gruden mentioned that he actually knows who he wants to go with and snidely commented “contrary to belief.”
“I have to see some things for me to make the decision and that’ll come out here at practice tomorrow,” Gruden said. “Hopefully, after tomorrow’s practice, I’ll have a good indication of who I want to play. So, yeah, in my mind I have a pretty good plan, contrary to belief.
“It is the most important position in pro sports, without a doubt,” Gruden said. “You would love to have some continuity there, some consistency there. Unfortunately, we have not had that luxury here in awhile. Until we get that luxury, until we start to have that, that’s probably when you’ll see some different results. I feel good about all three quarterbacks and they all bring something different to the table. We’ve just got to settle on one and get him ready to go. When that guy gets his opportunity they have to take advantage of it and dominate the position and never look back.”
Again it looks like the veteran McCoy will be the starter on Sunday and if that’s the case Gruden knew all along who he wanted to face the Patriots.
Thursday has the makings of yet again another newsworthy day coming out of Redskins Park.