Mike Tomlin Has Honest Reaction To Dwayne Haskins’ Performance vs. Eagles
Former first-round draft pick Dwayne Haskins could have an NFL rebirth on his hands.
During Thursday night’s preseason matchup against Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh Steelers backup went 16-of-22 for 161 yards and a touchdown as the second quarterback inserted into the lineup. Mason Rudolph took starting reps as QB1 Ben Roethlisberger was held out by the team.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was pleased with Haskins’ performance in the 24-16 win.
“I thought he was in command tonight,” Tomlin said, per Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He did a great job communicating with people, going through his progressions. There was a third-down play, third-and-8 maybe, and I saw him go through three or four reads and throw the ball over the middle of the field and converted for us. That was a snapshot of the night he had.”
Haskins attributed his improved play to a suggestion from quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, telling him to play like a “jazz player.”
“Pretty much be smooth, and that is what I was trying to do,” Haskins said. “Be smooth, allow plays to come to me, trust what I saw and let my eyes and feet tell me where to go with the ball.”
The Steelers signed Haskins on a one-year deal back in January.
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Steelers HC Mike Tomlin: Dwayne Haskins ‘in command’ in preseason opener
Dwayne Haskins is hoping to revive his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He got out to a good start during training camp, and his success continued into Pittsburgh’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Haskins completed 16-of-22 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown in Thursday’s 24-16 win. He served as Pittsburgh’s second quarterback behind Mason Rudolph. The Steelers held Ben Roethlisberger out.
“I thought he was in command tonight,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said of Haskins, according to Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He did a great job communicating with people, going through his progressions. There was a third-down play, third-and-8 maybe, and I saw him go through three or four reads and throw the ball over the middle of the field and converted for us. That was a snapshot of the night he had.”
Haskins, a former first-round pick of the Washington Football Team, is competing with Rudolph to be Roethlisberger’s backup this season. His performance against the Eagles comes after a solid debut against the Dallas Cowboys last week in the Hall of Fame Game. The 24-year-old completed 8-of-13 passes for 54 yards. Both drives he led ended in scores.
If Haskins beats Rudolph for the backup job, he could eventually become Pittsburgh’s starter. Roethlisberger is nearing the end of his career, and the team currently doesn’t have many other quarterback options.
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Dwayne Haskins
 Haskins with the Washington Football Team in 2020
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| No. 3 – Pittsburgh Steelers | |||||||||
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| Position: | Quarterback | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | May 3, 1997 Highland Park, New Jersey |
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| Height: | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 218 lb (99 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Bullis School (Potomac, Maryland) | ||||||||
| College: | Ohio State (2016–2018) | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 2019 / Round: 1 / Pick: 15 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Roster status: | Active | ||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics as of 2020 | |||||||||
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| Player stats at NFL.com · PFR | |||||||||
Dwayne Haskins Jr. (born May 3, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State University, where he threw 50 touchdowns in 2018, his lone starting season, one of just seven quarterbacks to reach the milestone in a single NCAA season. He won several Big Ten conference awards and was named a finalist for the Maxwell Award and Heisman Trophy. Haskins was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
Born Dwayne Haskins Jr. on May 3, 1997 in Highland Park, New Jersey, he and his family moved to Potomac, Maryland when he was in the ninth grade. There, he attended and played football at Bullis School from 2013–2016, where he passed for 5,308 yards and 54 touchdowns. He originally committed to the University of Maryland over Rutgers University to play college football, but later decided to attend Ohio State after Maryland football coach Randy Edsall was fired mid-season.
College career
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Haskins redshirted his first year at Ohio State in 2016. The following year, he was the backup to J.T. Barrett. He finished the season completing 40 of 57 passes for 565 yards and four touchdowns. Haskins then went on to have a record-setting campaign in his sophomore season in 2018, which was his lone starting season at the school. He claimed the single season passing and touchdown records for Ohio State and the Big Ten by eclipsing the 4,000-passing yards mark and throwing 50 touchdowns, making him just one of seven NCAA quarterbacks to ever achieve the latter in a single season.
Additionally, he claimed school records in total offense in a season (4,900+ yards), total offensive yards in a game (477) and total passing yards in a game (470). In all 12 of his starts, he threw for more than 225 passing yards, including eight games of more than 300 yards, and four games of more than 400. He threw for 499 yards and five touchdowns in the 2018 Big Ten Football Championship Game, while throwing three touchdowns in the 2019 Rose Bowl, winning the MVP award in both games for his performance.
His performance also earned him first team All–Big Ten honors, as well as six Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week awards, the Graham–George Offensive Player of the Year, the Griese–Brees Quarterback of the Year, the Chicago Tribune Silver Football, and the Male Ohio State Athlete of the Year awards.[17][18][19] He was also named as a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting.[20][21] In January 2019, Haskins announced that we would forgo his remaining two years of college football and enter the 2019 NFL Draft. As a student, he majored in journalism.
| Season | Games | Record | Passing | Rushing | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Comp | Att | Pct | Yards | TD | Int | Rate | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | ||
| 2016 | 0 | 0 | — |  |
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| 2017 | 8 | 0 | 0–0 | 40 | 57 | 70.2 | 565 | 4 | 1 | 173.1 | 24 | 86 | 3.6 | 0 |
| 2018 | 14 | 14 | 13–1 | 373 | 533 | 70.0 | 4,831 | 50 | 8 | 174.1 | 85 | 108 | 1.3 | 4 |
| Career | 22 | 14 | 13–1 | 413 | 590 | 70.1 | 5,396 | 54 | 9 | 173.6 | 109 | 194 | 1.8 | 4 |
Professional career
| Height | Weight | Arm length | Hand size | 40-yard dash | 10-yard split | 20-yard split | Vertical jump | Wonderlic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft 3+3⁄8 in (1.91 m) |
231 lb (105 kg) |
33+1⁄2 in (0.85 m) |
9+5⁄8 in (0.24 m) |
5.04 s | 1.75 s | 2.90 s | 28+1⁄2 in (0.72 m) |
25 | ||||
Washington Redskins / Football Team
2019 season
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Haskins was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, 15th overall. Despite his high school and college jersey number of 7 being unofficially retired by the Redskins in honor of quarterback Joe Theismann, whose career ended with a leg injury in 1985, Haskins requested and was granted permission from him to wear it. Haskins signed his four-year rookie contract on May 9, 2019.
2020 season
Prior to the 2020 season, Haskins lost around seven-percent in total body fat and was named the starter and one of the team captains.
Pittsburgh Steelers
On January 21, 2021, Haskins signed a futures contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Personal life
Haskins goes by the nickname Simba, which was taken from the protagonist of the 1994 film The Lion King. He adopted it as a child due to him having an afro at the time that reminded his mother of a lion’s mane. He uses the nickname and the film’s coming-of-age story as motivation and incorporates it into his personal clothing brand, Kingdom of Pride. His mentor during high school and college was NFL wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, whom he met through Mohamed Jabbie, one of his best friends and Sanu’s nephew. A New Jersey native, Haskins grew up a New York Giants fan.
Dwayne Haskins gets interesting advice from Steelers QB coach in impressive performance vs. Eagles
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Haskins looked the role of a musician once he entered the game for Pittsburgh, relaying what Sullivan instructed him to do, but Sullivan didn’t line up on the field and make the plays happen, those plays were orchestrated by Dwayne Haskins himself, not as a jazz player, but as an NFL STARTING QUARTERBACK THAT’S READY TO LEAD, NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Just pretty much be smooth,” Haskins said after the win. “That’s kind of what I was trying to do (Thursday), was just be smooth and a lot of plays will come to me. Trust in what I saw, letting my eyes tell me and my feet tell me where to go with the ball.”
Haskins finished 16 of 22 for 161 yards and a touchdown, entering the competition with Mason Rudolph for the Steelers’ No. 2 quarterback job. He had an impressive touchdown throw to Anthony Johnson, recognizing the pocket collapsing and stepping up to his right. While running, Haskins threw a pass across the middle and found Johnson for the score — one of many impressive throws of the night.
“It wasn’t necessarily what coach wanted,” Haskins said. “Like a lot of Cover-2, they weren’t really spying me as far as defensive coverages. When the read wasn’t there, I just bought a couple of extra ticks and I told the guys to work the second part of the route and get open if I don’t hit you right after I drop back. They did a great job staying alive for me.”
Haskins got off to a slow start, but was crisp on his intermediate throws in the second half. The Steelers finished 11 of 17 on third down, the majority of which were when Haskins was in the game. All Haskins wanted was another opportunity, and the Steelers have given him one.
“I really thought he was in command tonight,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “He did a great job of communicating with people and going through progressions. He had a third-and-8 or something and I saw him go through three or four reads, throw the ball over the middle of the field and convert for us. That was just a snapshot of the type of night he had.
“I thought he was very much in command of his play.”
DWAYNE HASKINS IS READY TO GET THE JOB DONE, HC MIKE TOMLIN WILL SEE TO THAT.
