Steelers Follow Their Plan in Signing of Dwayne Haskins

1
48

If you don’t understand how the Pittsburgh Steelers do things then you’re probably pretty perplexed as to why they signed Quarterback Dwayne Haskins today. I’ll be honest; despite knowing why they did it, I’m not crazy about. So let me explain both sides of this recent development.

Why Haskins?

The former first round pick got himself booted from the Washington Football Team late in the season. He instantly became free to sign with whomever he wanted to and whomever would have him. Therefore, enter the Steelers.

The Black and Gold have always lived under the premise that you’re only as good as the last guy on your roster. What they try to do then is build depth as well as they can. Today’s signing of Haskins is a prime example. Earlier this week they released Duck Hodges. This may be hard for some of you to read but Haskins is light years better than Hodges is.

When you can get a player of Haskins’ talent for what amounts to peanuts then you do it. Essentially the Steelers have swapped out Duck and Josh Dobbs for Dwayne. This is a classic Steelers’ move both from a competitive standpoint as well as a financial one.

Why I’m Not Crazy About It

I mentioned above that Haskins was released by the WFT late in the 2020 season. The release is one thing, the timing and reasoning is another.

In the midst of his team’s playoff push (yes I can call it that even though the NFC East was awful) he choose to go to a strip club, get photographed and do this while in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Young people make mistakes. We know this all too well in the Steel City and I recognize this. But Mike Tomlin has had locker room issues during his tenure and I don’t like the direction this is headed. With many current Steelers likely in other cities next year, Tomlin will need to re-establish a new vibe on his roster.

To be sure, this happens every year but not to the extent that is coming. Adding Haskins seems like an unnecessary move to me and the Steelers will hide behind the “we got stronger at the position” mantra. This signing should in no way reflect what Ben Roethlisberger will do in terms of returning or retiring. He will remain the number one, Mason Rudolph the two and then Haskins.

We cannot dismiss however that maybe that’s what this is; a preemptive “just in case he retires” type of thing. As I said, he’s better than Duck and likely better than Josh Dobbs too. But I’ll take Dobbs over him any day of the week and twice on Sunday. There’s something to be said for having maturity at the QB position but the Steelers see opportunity here and have their fingers crossed.

I hope they’re right.

Image courtesy riggosrag.com

1 COMMENT

  1. Dawayne Haskins can be a good player in this league. As a young athlete, along with a young mind, mistakes to be made. With proper influences and organizational stability, this kids could be a franchise QB in the future. Big props to the Steelers organization for seeing what could be.

LEAVE A REPLY

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.