Okay, before we get started, I'm going to blow your mind. Dwayne Haskins is a black quarterback, but he is not a mobile quarterback. I know, I know, his skin is much darker than Tom Brady's, but he's not going to beat you with his legs. He's not immobile, but I would compare his athleticism more to a younger Ben Roethlisberger where he can move to avoid pressure, but you should not be depending on him to beat teams with his legs.
The first thing that jumped out at me is his ability at throwing crossing routes.
He was absolutely incredible throwing over the middle of the field for short to intermediate throws. They were not only catchable balls but usually did a great job of leading his receiver to give them the best chance to make yards after the catch. Ohio State was a team built on speed at the wide receiver position, and these throws really did a great job of maximizing those abilities.
I do think he struggles with accuracy outside the numbers. And watching three games, I can't think of a single out route that he threw in any of those contests. That could be an anomaly, or it could be the Ohio State coaches playing to his strengths and keeping most of the passes inside the numbers.
I like that he goes through progressions on this play, but he almost seems too bouncy.
I would have liked to see him plant deliberately and deliver. He just didn't seem set correctly, and I would have liked to see him extend that front leg more. His base looks narrow when delivering the throw which is something that plagued him in all of the games that I saw.
This is another case where his footwork could use some refining.
He has enough space to step up and throw as he's going to take a hit either way, but he doesn't , so his feet, which are narrowly apart, are aimed straight ahead while he tries to complete a pass near the sideline. That is not a recipe for success.
Here is more very poor footwork.
His feet are aimed at the out route while he throws the curl. It's not too surprising that he badly sails this pass.
Back to the positives, I was impressed with Haskins's pocket presence as he would often move into open space as he prepared to throw the ball.
That isn't any grand movement, but by drifting off to his left he avoids the collapsing pocket on his right side and gives himself plenty of room to make the throw over the middle of the field.
Still, I didn't see much in the way of him scanning the field as he failed to quickly move onto his secondary reads.
Here, it looks like he glances toward the post route on the right side, but then makes his mind up to throw to the dig route across the middle of the field and gets lucky that the underneath defender didn't recognize the pattern as even the high pass could have been picked off. Haskins saw that his receiver had half a step on the man in coverage and never saw the other defender dropping into zone.
This is one of my favorite plays, because he actually is able to work through progressions while drifting away from pressure.
On the positive side, he throws it to his third read on this play and delivers a great ball across the middle of the field. At the same time, I question whether he is just going through the motions here, because his first option is the curl, and it is WIDE OPEN. So my best guess is that he looked left to get defenders to drift towards that side to help open up the middle of the field, but if that's the case I should give more credit to the the presnap read as opposed to Haskins understanding the chaos during the play.
Still, the reason people are excited about Haskins is that the arm talent is undeniably there.
Look how beautiful of a ball he throws when he actually steps into it. I just wish he would step into his throws more conistently.
As you can probably tell, I'm not super high on Dwayne Haskins. I can see the Ben Roethlisberger comparisons, but to me, he's more of a Blake Bortles. Someone with all of the physical tools who can flash at times but will never give you the consistency necessary to make you feel comfortable with your quarterback situation. Still, if the guy cleans up his mechanics, he has enough arm talent to succeed, but it's not a bet I'd be willing to make.
Previous Scouting Reports:
Noah Fant - Iowa Hawkeyes - Tight End
TJ Hockenson - Iowa Hawkeyes Tight End
Josh Jacobs - Alabama Crimson Tide - Running Back
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And bonus content from Lukewarm Jonah, who gives a more optimistic outlook for Haskins.
I watched film of Dwayne Haskins against Penn State, Minnesota and Michigan. I was very impressed by his arm strength, accuracy and touch. He really seems to be able to make every throw, and those throws look good. I’m gushing here, but he really has elite arm talent. That being said, there are a couple of things I noticed that made me stop and worry. Almost all of his plays seem to have a designed target for the ball meaning he doesn’t seem to read defenses that much besides seeing if his primary target is open. I would like to see more plays where he goes through his progression beyond his first or second option because in the NFL, your first option isn’t always going to be available. This also makes him dump it off a lot, which is good because he’s taking care of the ball, but again in the NFL, on 3rd and 10 you need to have the confidence to not dump it off 2 yards past the line of scrimmage. A lot of Haskins’ gaudy stats from this past year come from some nice RAC, but with the way he can throw the ball, I’m not overly concerned with this fact.
I feel very weird writing this, but one of my favorite plays of Haskins is something that is an afterthought in almost everyone’s head and what Minnesota fans looked at as a missed opportunity as an interception. Haskins is pressured, moves out of the pocket and provides an almost perfect throw to his running back who is man covered. The ball bounces off the linebackers helmet into the air for a potential interception. Why is this play that could have easily been a pick so impressive to me? He dealt with the pressure well and threw the ball exactly how it needed to be thrown, not too much air, not too flat. The majority of the time, he won’t get unlucky and have that ball take a weird bounce off some guy’s head and that will be a nice competition for a first down. It was a beautiful play where he got unlucky.
If your team is looking for a franchise quarterback, and if you’re picking early you probably will be, Haskins has all the tools to be one. I’d like to see more proof that he can go through his progression because it’s so important in the NFL, but his touch on short, medium and long throws is incredible and not everyone has it. Put that touch together with his arm strength and you have the potential to be special.
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