Haskins anxious to prove his worth
PITTSBURGH — Dwayne Haskins isn’t the same quarterback he was when he arrived in Pittsburgh in January. The self-doubt that crept in following his ignominious flameout in Washington is gone, replaced by a sense of confidence he believes will help him stick around when rosters are trimmed to 53 next Tuesday.
“I think being here (allows me) to be myself,” Haskins said Wednesday after being named the starter for Pittsburgh’s preseason finale against Carolina on Friday night. “It enables me to go out there and have fun. I feel like when (I can do that) you see it in my play, see it in (the way I) operate out of the huddle, how I talk to my teammates. And I feel like it’s contagious in a way because I have a lot of energy.”
While Haskins likely hasn’t done enough to unseat Mason Rudolph as the primary backup to Ben Roethlisberger when the regular season opens on Sept. 12 in Buffalo, it appears he has the inside track on sticking around as the No. 3. He will get one last chance to show head coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Matt Canada how far he’s come over the past eight months when he faces a Carolina team that plans on having several defensive regulars in the lineup during the first half on Friday.
The vibe will certainly be different for Haskins than the last time he saw the Panthers on the other side of the line of scrimmage. He walked onto the turf at FedEx Field on Dec. 27, 2020 as the starter for a team trying to earn a division title. He walked off it in shock after being replaced by Taylor Heinicke in the second half of what became a 20-13 loss. He was cut the next day, a staggeringly quick downfall for a player taken with the 15th overall pick in the 2019 draft.
The Steelers took a flier on him three weeks later, and he’s drawn praise from both Tomlin and Canada for his mature approach to the job. He’s not the starter or the focal point of the offense, just a 24-year-old trying to stick in the league. It’s not what he envisioned on that giddy night 28 months ago when Washington pinned its hopes on the kid with the big arm who grew up near the city.
