La Canfora: Washington could trade Dwayne Haskins by the end of the month; Hopes Alex Smith can take over as starter soon

UPDATE: Haskins won’t be at today’s game

What would Sunday morning be without a few Washington Football Team bombshells. Jason La Canfora has a special relationship with Washington and the fans. He wrote two articles today that paint a picture of what’s going on with the current QB situation.

Ron Rivera officially benched Dwayne Haskins Jr. on Wednesday, and moved him to third string. Kyle Allen was named the starter, and Alex Smith will be #2 and active on game days for the first time since breaking his leg two years ago. Rivera said he hasn’t given up on Haskins, but there have stories this week that don’t make that likely. Reports about Haskins work ethic since being named the starter, his study habits going back to last season, and how he reacted to his personal stats in last week’s loss .

Jason La Canfora reports that the situation between Haskins and Rivera’s staff is already toxic. He says people close to Haskins have been advising him that a trade would be the best outcome for his career. NFL executives have started looking at Haskins film in case he becomes available. La Canfora says multiple sources within the organization believe a trade by the end of the month is the most likely outcome.

Haskins was not drafted by this regime, which was not high on him coming out of college. He is not a fit in their system, and his personality has rubbed them the wrong way since early on. Sources say with almost no practice time now and likely to be a healthy scratch many weeks, it’s difficult for Haskins to envision a future for himself in Washington, where his development has never felt like a priority dating back to last season, when soon-to-be-fired coach Jay Gruden threw him into regular season games before many believed he was ready.

Numerous sources who have been in contact with Washington staff members told me that there was a strong perception that Haskins was not a good fit early on, and that he was only a starter because he was a favorite of owner Daniel Snyder, whose children went to school with Haskins.

“What they’ll tell you in that building is that he is a project who was drafted by the owner and his son,” said one league source who has talked to numerous Washington staff members. “That’s the bottom line there. Allen is their guy. They think he fits their system. They didn’t really want anything to do with Haskins from the beginning.”

The second story talks about the plan going forward now that Haskins has been benched, and with the possibility he gets traded. Kyle Allen is their guy, but the team is hopeful that Alex Smith can return to the field as the starter after a few more weeks of practice and serving as the backup.

The expectation is that after a week or two more practice time and serving as the backup quarterback that Smith would be able to take over for Allen as starter. Coach Ron Rivera believes the team has a shot to win the weak NFC East and Smith played the best football of his career in 2017, his last full season.

If this is the plan, then it would be an incredible comeback for Alex Smith, and an incredible failure by Dwayne Haskins Jr. and the Washington Football Team. Another 1st round pick wasted on a quarterback that impressed one person who defied his coaches and personnel department. If Haskins is on the market, do they even get back what Arizona got for their failed 1st round pick Josh Rosen(2019 2nd and 2020 5th)?