2020 Fantasy Football Breakout Candidate: Dwayne Haskins

QB Dwayne Haskins (Washington Redskins) | 2nd Year

2019 Stats: 1,365 passing yard, 7 TD, 7 INT; 101 rushing yards

Dwayne Haskins started his 2019 rookie season on the bench, and his NFL debut did not go well. Stepping in for a benched Case Keenum mid-game, he went 9-for-17 for 107 yards with three interceptions in a 24-3 Week 4 loss to the New York Giants.

Haskins would not see action again Week 8 against the Minnesota Vikings, when Keenum was unable to continue due to a concussion. The limited results there were not any better (3-for-5 for 33 yards with an interception). But Haskins made his first NFL start in Week 9 against the Buffalo Bills, and he would ultimately start seven games before missing Week 17 with an ankle injury.

In his first five starts, Haskins threw for 831 yards with three touchdowns, three interceptions and a 55 percent completion rate. Over his last two outings, including Week 16 when he suffered the aforementioned ankle injury, he completed 72 percent of his passes with multiple passing touchdowns in both games. On a per pass attempt basis, his sack rate dropped from 16.3 to 6.9 from his five five starts to his last two.

The Redskins’ new coaching staff has seemed tepidly committed to Haskins as the starting quarterback, and the acquisition of Kyle Allen from the Carolina Panthers has fueled the idea of a looming controversy. Allen is of course plenty familiar to Washington head coach Ron Rivera and offensive coordinator Scott Turner, who came from Carolina where Allen saw extensive action last season.

No matter who the quarterback is, the Redskins failed to add notable talent around him in free agency. The draft changed that a little, with versatile running back/wide receiver Antonio Gibson and wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden coming aboard. Thaddeus Moss was signed as an undrafted free agent, and he has a good chance to push for snaps at tight end. Offensive tackle Saahdiq Charles and center Keith Ismael were also drafted as reinforcements along the offensive line.

The Trent Williams saga is finally over, with a trade to the San Francisco 49ers on Day 3 of the draft. Haskins did without him all of last season, but there’s still a void at left tackle with Charles likely to compete for the starting job with Geron Christian. That said, it would be hard for the Redskins’ offensive line to be worse than it was in 2019. Football Outsiders ranked them second-to-last in the league as a pass blocking unit.

It’s an incredibly small sample, less than two full games it were since he was injured, but Haskins was QB16 in fantasy over Week 15-16 last year. His average points per game over that span would have the 15th-best among quarterbacks for the whole season.

With some experience under his belt, a better set of weapons around him (however marginally) and pass protection that can really only improve, the arrow points up for Haskins heading into his second season. Whether that translates to noteworthy fantasy numbers is a different conversation.

If Allen has a legit chance to win the starting job, Haskins needs to go out and dismiss that easily. Under that assumption, a push into QB2 territory looks like the ceiling for the Ohio State product in 2020. So hardly a certified fantasy breakout campaign when it comes down to it.

But at anywhere near his current spot of QB30, in both cheat sheet rankings (Fantasy Pros) and ADP (12-team PPR, Fantasy Football Calculator), Haskins might shape up to be a suitable flier as a low-end QB2/high-end QB3 in deeper two-quarterback leagues.

2020 Projection: 3,275 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, 11 interceptions; 220 rushing yards, 1 TD

Breakout Confidence Level: 10%

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