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Dwayne Haskins
Sport: Football
Born: May 3, 1997
Town: Highland Park
Dwayne Haskins Jr. was born May 3, 1997 in Highland Park. Big and fast with a powerful arm, he gravitated to football and was a huge fan of the New York Giants and their quarterback, Eli Manning. Dwayne began his high school football career at the Bullis School in Potomac after his family moved to Maryland in 2011. He lit it up as a sophomore, emerging as a national-caliber recruit by his junior season for the Bulldogs. He led the team to conference titles three straight years and was named first-team All-Maryland as a senior after throwing for 20 scores and 2,200 yards.
Dwayne graduated with 54 TD passes and 5,308 passing yards. Heavily recruited as a junior and senior, he initially picked Maryland over Rutgers, but then opted for Ohio State when the Terrapins fired their coach. Former Buckeye and Redskin Shawn Springs, who had been instrumental in getting the family to move south, also talked him into switching schools.
By the time Dwayne started his freshman season he stood 6’3” and weight 220 pounds. He red-shirted 2016 and sat for a year behind starter J.T. Barrett in 2017, throwing just 57 passes. As a sophomore in 2018, Dwayne seized the starting job and put up record-smashing numbers. He threw for over 300 yards in 8 of the team’s 12 games, and added a 499-yard day with 5 TDs in the Big Ten Championship win over Northwestern. In all, Dwayne completed 70 percent of his 533 passes for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns, becoming just the sixth Division I player to throw for 50 scores. Both numbers set conference records. He was one of three finalists for the Heisman Trophy.
The Buckeyes went 13–1 and beat Washington 28–23 in the Rose Bowl. The lone loss was a stunning 49–20 upset by Purdue, in which the Buckeye defense allowed four 4th quarter touchdowns to the Boilermakers. After the Rose Bowl, Dwayne declared for the NFL Draft, and many expected that he would be the first quarterback taken—possibly as an understudy to his hero, Manning. The Giants surprised everyone by taking Duke’s Daniel Jones with their pick. The Washington Redskins snapped up Dwayne with the 15th pick in the first round. They installed Dwayne the backup to veteran Case Keenum, and he saw his first NFL action against the Giants in a blowout loss at the end of September. He completed 9 of 17 passes, but also threw three interceptions.
In November, with Washington’s record standing at 1–7 and Jon Gruden fired, new coach Bill Callahan anointed Dwayne the starter. After losses to the Bills and Jets, Dwayne guided the ’Skins to back-to-back victories over the Lions and Panthers. His first pro TD pass was a 45-yarder to Derrius Guice in the Jets game. Dwayne’s two best performances of the year came in his final games of 2019—though both were losses—against the Eagles and Giants. He tossed a pair of touchdown passes in each, completing 31 of 43 passes with no interceptions.
Dwayne’s final numbers in 9 games (7 starts) were 119 of 203 pass completions for 1,365 yards, with 7 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
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