PITTSBURGH — Dwayne Haskins is coming into a seemingly vastly different operation in Pittsburgh compared to what he did in Washington. The prospective quarterback is looking to make some inroads and improve his standing with the team. However, the process of a week’s preparation is so vastly different from what they did in Washington, Haskins feels he is in a borderline luxurious position in Pittsburgh. Even with Mason Rudolph seemingly having that backup quarterback job locked up, Mike Tomlin’s process is no different with Haskins and keeping him informed.
“I think Coach Tomlin does a great job of giving us a scouting report of who you’re playing this week,” Haskins said. “I never really had that before. As far as knowing who the senior analysis coach was, who the defensive coordinator is, who was the DBs coach, what did he like to do, what techniques the corners play. And we’d get that all before we even come into practice for the week. So, that’s pretty cool to be able to have a great jumpstart.”
Haskins notes that the Steelers do a lot of different things in their offense, and those situations will cause the Steelers to stretch the scouting report further in order to help their quarterbacks, which is something else Haskins never had before.
“I feel like with this offense, we do a lot of different things that can stress a defense,” Haskins said. “You know, play-action passes, bootleg game, screens, RPOs, all of that stuff. So, I think the biggest thing is me preparing.”
Haskins notes that while Tomlin certainly helps him out with the scouting report, he himself loves to hop into the film room to get a look at it himself, even if that was not the narrative as he left Washington.
“I’ve always been the type of person, whether that was narrative or not, to watch film and stay in late, come in early,” Haskins said.
While Haskins gets his golden opportunity to lace the cleats up and start against Carolina on Friday, the Steelers coaching staff seems to be doing everything they can to try and make it a successful endeavor for him.