Dwayne Haskins catching up to Daniel Jones, rookie class

ASHBURN — By his own admission, Dwayne Haskins wants to “throw up” every time he watches the film from his debut with the Washington Redskins. Thrown in midway through the second quarter, the 22-year-old looked overmatched, raw as could be, as the Redskins fell 24-3 in a Week 4 loss to the New York Giants.

So much has happened since that the rookie said there’s no use talking about it.

“I’m a whole different player than I was back then,” Haskins said.

This week, Haskins will get another shot at the Giants, now better suited to face the challenges an NFL defense presents. He’ll do so with Daniel Jones as the Giants’ quarterback, one of two rookie passers taken ahead Haskins in the first round. Though Haskins has downplayed the matchup, the two will forever be linked as cameras caught Haskins, a New Jersey native, laughing and shaking his head when New York took Jones with the sixth overall pick on draft night.

Back in the first meeting, Jones was the superior quarterback — yet, Haskins has significantly improved over his six starts this season. As the two prepare for the rematch, it’s fair to wonder just who is having the better season. In fact, for all the progress that Haskins has made, where does he rank among the rookie quarterbacks in his class?

With two weeks left in the regular season, there have been eight rookie quarterbacks who have started at least one game: Arizona’s Kyler Murray, Jones, Haskins, Denver’s Drew Lock, Cincinnati’s Ryan Finley, Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew, Pittsburgh’s Devlin Hodges and Detroit’s David Blough.

Of that group, Haskins is in a lower-tier statistically. He has a 70.2 passer rating — only Blough and Finley have been worse. His completion percentage of 56.91 is the second-worst of his class and he ranks second-to-last in yards per game (154).

Still, despite the stats, it’s far too early to say whether any of the rookies are either headed for greatness or failure. After all, at this point last year, Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield was on his way to breaking the rookie passing touchdown record. Now in his sophomore year, the former No. 1 pick has just 17 touchdowns to 17 interceptions, leaving people to reevaluate whether he’s headed for stardom.

For the Redskins, the most important aspect is that they see progress.

“I think it was great for him,” Redskins interim coach Bill Callahan of Haskins’ most recent performance. “What were there, nine different lead changes during the course of the game? To answer scores and to continue to answer the score shows a real sign of growth and maturity not only for him, but for our team. … We scored touchdowns, we were in the red zone, we converted on third downs, we made a lot of positive plays in areas that we hadn’t functioned very well in, so those are all positive signs.”

Against the Eagles last Sunday, the Redskins needed to see a game like that from Haskins. The Ohio State product was quick and decisive, executing the team’s game plan as intended. Haskins finished with 291 yards and two touchdowns, and just as important, he was sacked only one time. Those were improvements from earlier in the year when Haskins was often inaccurate and held the ball too long.

When evaluating new quarterbacks, it’s vital to contextualize the situation they’re coming into, says ESPN analyst and former quarterback Dan Orlovsky. A quarterback is only as good as the players around him, and in Haskins’ case, there’s a strong argument he’s working with the least amount of talent outside of the 1-13 Bengals.

Orlovsky defended Haskins’ play, saying he’s grown from “snap to snap” at a rapid rate.

“Find me a dominant unit or average unit on that football team offensively,” Orlovsky said of the Redskins. “I’d say the receivers in totality are below average to the NFL standards. The tight ends are below average. The tailbacks are below average. And the offensive line is below average. That doesn’t mean (receiver Terry) McLaurin is not a really good player, but in the grouping, in the unit, (it’s) below average.

“So how do we expect a quarterback to play well consistently when the people that are around them are below average?”

Orlovsky acknowledged that none of the rookie quarterbacks fell into a great situation; it’s why players like Murray and Jones were drafted high in the first place. But of the group so far, Orlovsky said that Murray has performed the best. With first-year coach Kliff Kingsbury, Murray benefitted from running a similar offense in college and taking first-team reps throughout the offseason.

Jones, though, has also performed well — surpassing the low expectations when the pick was widely panned on the night of the draft. Before an ankle injury sidelined him for the last two games, the Duke product started 10 of 11 games, throwing 18 touchdowns to 11 interceptions.

Giants coach Pat Shurmur said Jones, who is likely to make his return against the Redskins, has been able to fight through the challenges of being a rookie.

At times, the Redskins and the Giants have both had to live with moments in which each rookie has made their share of mistakes. But it might benefit them in the long run.

“For Daniel and Dwayne, they’ve had a chance to play and play a lot,” Shurmur said. “I think that’ll help them in their development.”