The trend has been like this for most of the week, Alex Smith will miss another game while dealing with a calf injury on his surgically repaired leg. There was optimism at the beginning of the week that he could return after a week off, but that disappeared as the week went on. He trained on Friday, but the training video didn’t make it look like he was back in the game. He was still in pain, but Washington listed him as questionable and wanted to see how he felt on match day.
The decision was supposedly made and Smith will be inactive today. This means that Dwayne Haskins Jr. gets his second consecutive start and another chance to show this coaching staff what he can do. His start against the Seahawks last week was unstable, with two interceptions that kept the team down. Haskins only started playing decent football later in the game, after “getting mad”.
At this point, Dwayne Haskins is due to leave for Washington today, a person with knowledge of the confirmed situation.
– Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) December 27, 2020
What followed the game led to one of the week’s biggest stories (year?). Photos of Haskins partying with what looked like strippers appeared on social media. This led to various apologies to the team, fans, coaches and anyone who wanted to hear. Ron Rivera withdrew his captaincy and the team fined him $ 40k.
Washington went no further and issued a suspension for violations of Haskins’ second COVID-19 protocol this season. The team can click on the playoffs today if the Giants lose and win. With Alex Smith’s health still in doubt, they had their hands tied because they now need Haskins, but he is not on his long-term plans, according to a report by Jason La Canfora this morning.
“Haskins had asked for a negotiation at the beginning of the season, after his benching in the first month of the season, sources said, and the WFT was willing to transfer it then, but there was a limited market at best. That market is likely to be still more restricted in 2021, with most teams waiting for him to be released this off-season, after two highly tumultuous seasons in Washington, since he was selected in the first round by a previous regime. “
La Canfora said it is almost certain that Washington and Haskins will split up in one form or another next year. Even if Haskins wins today and performs better than last week, it is likely to be too late. Haskins had two angry technical teams with him and, although Dan Snyder influenced his selection in last year’s draft, Ron Rivera overcame that.