Andrew Fillipponi is all-in on Dwayne Haskins.
On the PM Team Thursday, Poni opened the show extolling Haskins' performance in minicamp, and just as importantly, the flexibility his contract would provide the Steelers to remake their roster.
"You've got to get yourself in a mindset where, let's suck it up with Big Ben for one more year," Fillipponi said. "Let's embrace Dwayne Haskins as the future of the Steelers quarterback position, and the infinite possibilities, because of how cheap he'll be in a salary cap sport, that come with it. In the building of a super team, where you have all kinds of money to spend around Dwayne Haskins. It's been so long since the Steelers were able to play that way with a cheap quarterback."
The last time was 2005, when the Steelers won the Super Bowl with a rookie Ben Roethlisberger under center. It's hard to fathom now, but Roethlisberger only completed nine passes in Super Bowl XL. Pittsburgh won the strength of Jerome Bettis and its smash mouth defense.
But then again, that was 16 years ago. The NFL is even more of a passing league now, so if Haskins is going to shepherd the Steelers back to postseason glory, he'll have to be much better than he was in Washington. The Football Team released Haskins before their Week 17 finale, due to poor performance and multiple violations of the NFL's COVID-19 protocols.
They gave up on him less than two years after selecting him with the No. 15 overall pick.
Now playing for the league minimum, Fillipponi says Haskins has been humbled. At least, he's been saying all of the right things so far.
"I just wanted to prove to the coaching staff and my teammates how much I love football," Haskins told reporters Thursday, including The Fan's Josh Rowntree. "I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here and showing them that my mind is in the right place and I'm willing to work to be able to show my talents and be able to work and earn a spot here."
Haskins, 24, has a lot of work to do. He finished his career in Washington with a 3-10 record as a starter, throwing 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The Steelers signed him to a one-year, $850,000 deal in January.
Presumably, he'll enter training camp looking to win the backup job from Mason Rudolph or Joshua Dobbs. Reports out of minicamp indicate Haskins outplayed the two mediocre passers this week.
As Fillipponi points out, there is a long history of first-round QB flameouts excelling with their second team, most notably Brett Favre.
"Brett Favre washed out in Atlanta one year — same kind of thing," he said. "His head wasn't in it, didn't talk football seriously, kept walking around in those rolled up jean shorts like in that video of him laying in his bed when he got drafted. Drinking too much. … Bust in Atlanta, goes to Green Bay. The rest is history. He retires as the NFL's all-time leading passer."
Of course, for Haskins to ascend to the starting role, Roethlisberger will probably have to retire. It's apparent Fillipponi is hoping that's sooner rather than later.
"If I'm going to be pessimistic about Roethlisberger, can I get optimistic about Haskins?," he said.
