When Ron Rivera goes to Kyle Allen on Sunday against the Rams, The Sports Junkies wonder which Kyle Allen Washington will be getting.
"Kyle Allen will start against the Rams," Jason Bishop said, announcing the breaking news that Dwayne Haskins has been benched for Allen.
"That is unbelievable," Eric Bickel reacted. "Un-believable."
"Dude, they looked at the film and they didn't like what they saw," he added. "Two weeks in a row."
"I told you that 'if' was telling," said John-Paul Flaim. "I told you that 'if' was telling."
"It's Rivera's guy. He ran Rivera's and Turner's offense," John Auville said of Allen. "They gave up the fifth-round pick to bring him in here in case something went wrong with Haskins, if Haskins didn't develop the way they wanted. It hasn't happened yet. Kyle Allen is your new starter in Washington. Wow."
"Again, if you look at what Rivera said after the game," Flaim interjected, "he said, 'If he's a starter in the league.' That was conditional. He also said we'll see how things play out. Remember that? He said 'Haskins is the starter, but we'll see how things play out.' Well here's how it played out: he benched him."
"Or maybe he didn't like some attitude stuff. I don't know," Bickel said. "Maybe he didn't like some work habit stuff."
"Let's hope Washington is getting the Kyle Allen of early last season, not the one of late last season, where he had games of multiple picks," Auville chimed. "He had four picks in the game against the Falcons. He had three picks in the game against the Seahawks."
"Alright, now do his good games," Bickel prodded.
"His early games, like his game against Arizona in late September, he had four touchdowns and no picks," Auville said. "Threw for 261 yards."
"How many times has Haskins done that so far?" Bickel wondered aloud.
Allen finished with a 144.4 passer rating in that 38-20 Carolina win over Arizona, his best performance of the 2019 season, by far. Alternatively, Allen's worst performance of the season came in a 51-13 blowout loss to San Francisco, in which he threw for 158 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions on just a 51.3 percent completion rate, amounting to a putrid 28.9 passer rating. He also took a whopping seven sacks in the game.
"He had three games last year where his quarterback rating was over 100," Flaim said. "So he had three really good games, and he had his moments, but as Jason has mentioned many times, he was a turnover monster, particularly in the second half of the season."
Washington turns to Allen with a paltry 1-3 record, which in most seasons would have them far removed from playoff contention. But in this year's NFC East, it's good for second place, behind the 1-2-1 Eagles.
"I think if an NFC East team like Dallas were 4-0 or 3-1, and there was no real hope in contending in the division, that this move would not have been made," Auville said. "But it's such a bad division, that maybe the coaching staff feels like, 'Look, if we get a spark with Kyle Allen, we're right in the mix to be kind of ahead of where we thought we'd be.'"
"Look, they're looking at the film and they're seeing a ton of stuff that he's not taking advantage of," Bickel said. "It's the only answer."
"That right there, EB, that's what it is. And it's also awareness," said Flaim. "You know, I'm doing the Washington Football pregame show on The Fan with Logan Paulsen, and he looks at the film at every play, and he's been shaking his head, because he says sometimes there's basic coverages — whether it's a Cover One — and that a quarterback should know immediately, when they see that before they snap it, where they're gonna go with the ball, and Dwayne has been going to the wrong places."
