I’m not sure where precisely on the list of things Pittsburgh Steelers fans love getting their hopes up about a high-pedigreed quarterback flyer with low or no risk might fall, but it often seems to be pretty high up there. The latest entry into the sage is Dwayne Haskins, a former 2019 first-round pick of the Washington Football Team.
The fact that he was such a recent draft pick and was available to be signed to a futures contract should certainly sent out alarm bells, but of course anybody who has watched him play understands that he has not exactly lived up to his draft pedigree.
Obviously, when you have a situation like this where such a high draft pick at such a significant position is made so readily available this early on in his career, it usually involves more than just on-field performance, and that is the case for Haskins.
Not that everyone has left his corner. His former teammate, fellow quarterback Alex Smith, is rooting for him, and understands that there may have been some things in his way that were at odds with him reaching a level of success in Washington.
“Certainly there was a lot working against him the last two years that didn’t allow him to reach his potential, because he’s a guy that’s crazy gifted. Crazy, crazy talented”, he said on the Yahoo Sports Podcast about Haskins.
“And he’s a good kid. My hope is certainly that—we all have different roads, different paths, and it takes different things for us to learn from and to grow—hopefully this can be one of those experiences for him that helps him get going to wherever he wants to go”.
I would imagine that similar things have been said about any number of young players with high pedigree who relatively quickly flamed out at their first opportunity. For every one who actually succeeds and flourishes with their second chance, who knows how many more never amount to what they were drafted to be?
Of course we’re dealing with people, not statistics, and whatever comes next for Haskins is theoretically within his control. Whatever he needs to work on, in both his professional and private lives, in order for him to give himself the opportunity to have the career that he wants to have for himself, he has the power to make that happen. And really, nobody else does.
