Less than two months from the NFL draft, all the buzz is about the top quarterback prospects — where they’ll land and how early they’ll be picked.
Now that Ben Roethlisberger is taking a pay cut to come back for 2021, it’d be a surprise if the Steelers pursue that avenue. And thanks to a relatively low-risk move this offseason, they’ve already taken a shot on a player with first-round pedigree who could have a chance to be their quarterback of the future.
Dwayne Haskins went 15th overall just two years ago, but he’s been a Steeler since signing a reserve/futures contract Jan. 21 after flaming out in Washington. His original team benched him four weeks in, then cut him before he even reached the end of the regular season. There’s no guarantee Haskins will even make the team this year, but he at least has a fresh start in Pittsburgh.
“He’s happy as a kid in a candy shop,” Shawn Springs, a mentor of Haskins whom the quarterback lived with in high school, told the Post-Gazette last week.
Haskins has known Springs since he was 12, so it won't surprise you to know the cornerback who was the No. 3 pick in 1997 and played 13 years in the league is in his corner. But while Haskins isn’t doing interviews right now, instead focusing on his offseason work in southern California, according to his new agent Cedric Saunders, Springs is used to being asked about the passer who authored the most prolific season in Ohio State history.
Springs was a Buckeye, too, and spent five season with the same NFL franchise that would draft Haskins. It wasn’t uncommon for him to talk Haskins on Washington radio, and he saw firsthand how Haskins went from first-round pick to falling out of favor with a new front office and coaching staff. Beyond Haskins’ on-field struggles — 1,439 yards, 5 touchdown and 7 interceptions on 61.4% passing in seven games last year — he also was fined $40,000, removed as a team captain and publicly lambasted from all angles after a photo surfaced of him attending a birthday party for his girlfriend that appeared to include more strippers than face coverings. It was the second time Haskins, 23, violated the NFL’s COVID-19 policy.
“People forget he’s still a kid — or a young man,” Springs said.
Haskins’ decision to sign a minimum-salary, $850,000 one-year deal with the Steelers may have reflected his lack of options. But Springs sees it as an ideal destination, an organization with stability and a track record of success, unlike the one Haskins started with. Not only did new coach Ron Rivera have a different vision for Washington, but even former head coach Jay Gruden admitted last month he wasn’t completely on board with drafting Haskins that high.
To this point, his pro career is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, is there any hope for a first-rounder whose team gave up on him in less than two years? But then again, it’s only been two years. That leaves plenty of time to improve on the field and mature off of it.
“I know he’s excited to be behind Ben and learn from Ben, and that’s all you ask for as a kid,” said Springs, who considers Steelers special teams coach Danny Smith a friend from their time spent together in Washington. “Normally, you could learn from a guy like Alex [Smith], but he was in a tough situation, too. Now you get to be behind Ben Roethlisberger. Despite Pittsburgh not going as far as they wanted to last year, I actually thought Ben had a pretty good year.”
Smith’s Comeback Player of the Year story ended up making Haskins something of a footnote last season. Eventually, Roethlisberger will weigh in on Haskins being added to the roster, but Smith already gave the perspective of a veteran quarterback who worked closely with him.
“The first thing I hope with Dwayne, and I’ve told him this, is you don't have a chance until you’ve eliminated a lot of the distractions going on in your life,” Smith told the late Terez Paylor on a Yahoo Sports podcast after the season. “And it’s hard as a young player, as a young draft pick, certainly as a quarterback, thrust with a lot of weight and expectations. … Certainly, there was a lot working against him here the last two years that didn't allow him to reach his potential. Because he’s a guy who’s crazy gifted, crazy talented, and he’s a good kid.”
Last time the strong-armed, 6-foot-4 Haskins spoke to any media, in late December, he told a Washington TV station he was “praying another team sees the potential in me I see in myself.”
“I feel like I can still be a great quarterback one day, but it will take time. It will take a lot of hard work and dedication,” Haskins added. “That’s something I’m willing to do.”
Of course, saying it and doing it are two different things. Haskins has dug his own hole, one he has to climb out of himself to shed the obvious “bust” label.
“It didn’t work out for him. There was a change in regimes, he was cut, and it was a no-risk pick-up for us,” said Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert, who had a high grade on Haskins coming out of Ohio State. “He is a talented player and we will find out more about him once we get him in here and get him out on the field.”
From his time around the NFL, Springs has had conversations with Mike Tomlin at various league functions and calls him “a great dude.” He believes it will help Haskins simply to have a coach interested in developing him.
“It’s like, hey, I get to go to a team that actually wants to work with me! People forget that’s what all young players want,” Springs said. “People say it didn't go well [in 2020]. He had no offseason. He started four games [before being benched]. And you expect him to look like Drew Brees? He had better numbers than Daniel Jones, but he just didn't continue to play.
“Just think about Ben Roethlisberger. I remember people giving Ben a hard time because something happened in Georgia, something happened with a motorcycle. At the time, he was a young guy, winning the Super Bowl, so [stuff] happens. But he’s still Ben Roethlisberger. He was able to mature and do some really good things for the franchise.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: March 10, 2021, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: March 10, 2021, 12:04 p.m.
