Chris Cooley thinks Washington will struggle to trade Dwayne Haskins

Cooley thinks Washington will struggle to trade Dwayne Haskins originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

The Washington Football Team hoped Dwayne Haskins would be the future face of the franchise when they drafted him 15th overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.

A year and a half later, Haskins has been benched, relegated to third-string, and reportedly on the trade market. All signs point towards the end of the Haskins era in the nation’s capital.

The Burgundy and Gold invested a first-round pick in Haskins, but former Washington tight end Chris Cooley doesn’t think they’ll be able to net anything close to that in return for the quarterback, should they choose to trade him.

“You’re not getting a second. I doubt you’re getting a third,” Cooley said on the Kevin Sheehan Show on Monday. “I doubt you’re getting a conditional third. I think you start to entertain what comes up in the fourth.”

Cooley thinks Haskins’ inability to succeed under two separate head coaches — two bosses with completely different personalities — will ultimately keep opposing teams from pulling the trigger on trading for the quarterback.

“When you have two staffs — by the way, two completely different mentalities between the two staffs — Jay Gruden is one mentality and Ron Rivera is an entirely different personality,” Cooley said. “When you have two staffs, you have every GM and head coach that would be involved in this trade around the league talking to these guys and saying ‘What the hell happened here?'”

The tight end made it clear that the NFL circle is small. Teams will do their research, and those even slightly interested in Haskins will make a phone call to Gruden and ask about his former quarterback.

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It’s well documented Gruden did not want Washington to take Haskins in the draft, so it’s almost certain the former Washington head coach will have little positive things to say about the 23-year-old.

“No one is going to endorse him,” Cooley said.

Since Haskins was officially benched last Wednesday, multiple reports have surfaced as to why. Rivera cited the team’s poor division and importance of Washington’s next few games as to why he made the move to Kyle Allen — a QB who knows the offensive system better than Haskins — but few believe that’s the entire story.

Haskins was allegedly hyping-up his 300-yard outing against the Ravens despite the team losing, something that didn’t resonate well in the locker room. Others suspected he had poor practice and study habits. One report even suggested Haskins was only given the starting nod to begin the season because he was owner Dan Snyder’s favorite.

“If you think they’re going to submarine him to the media, they’re going to submarine him everywhere,” Cooley said on the leaks about Haskins from inside the building.

It only takes one other team to be interested in a trade for it to work, however. Of course, Washington’s current staff likely won’t paint a negative picture on Haskins to other teams; they’re trying to maximize his trade value after all.

Despite believing Washington will struggle to find a trade partner for Haskins, Cooley does believe the team will ultimately end up dealing him before the end of the month’s deadline.

“He’ll get traded,” Cooley said. “He’ll absolutely get traded.”

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