Dwayne Haskins

Dwayne Haskins Jr. (born May 3, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State University, and was drafted by the Redskins in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

In his lone starting season as a sophomore at Ohio State in 2018, he threw 50 touchdowns with only 8 interceptions, making him one of the few quarterbacks to ever pass for 50 or more in a single NCAA season. For that, he won numerous Big Ten player awards and finished as a Maxwell Award and Heisman Trophy finalist, while also being voted MVP of the 2018 Big Ten Football Championship Game and 2019 Rose Bowl.

Early years
Haskins was born on May 3, 1997, and raised in Highland Park, New Jersey, moving to Potomac, Maryland when he was in the ninth grade where he played football at the Bullis School from 2013–2016. During his career there, he passed for 5,308 yards and 54 touchdowns. He originally committed to the University of Maryland over Rutgers University to play college football, but later decided to attend Ohio State after Maryland football coach Randy Edsall was fired mid-season.

College career
Haskins redshirted his first year at Ohio State in 2016. The following year, he was the backup to J.T. Barrett. He finished the season completing 40 of 57 passes for 565 yards and four touchdowns. Haskins then went on to have a record-setting campaign in his sophomore season in 2018, which was his lone starting season at the school. He claimed the single season passing and touchdown records for Ohio State and the Big Ten by eclipsing the 4,000-passing yards mark and throwing 50 touchdowns, making him just one of six NCAA quarterbacks to ever achieve the latter in a single season. Additionally, he claimed school records in total offense in a season (4,900+ yards), total offensive yards in a game (477) and total passing yards in a game (470). In all 12 of his starts, he threw for more than 225 passing yards, including eight games of more than 300 yards, and four games of more than 400. He threw for 499 yards and five touchdowns in the 2018 Big Ten Football Championship Game, while throwing three touchdowns in the 2019 Rose Bowl, winning the MVP award in both games for his performance.

His performance also earned him first team All–Big Ten honors, as well as six Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week awards, the Graham–George Offensive Player of the Year, the Griese–Brees Quarterback of the Year, the Chicago Tribune Silver Football, and the Male Ohio State Athlete of the Year awards. He was also named as a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting. In January 2019, Haskins announced that we would forgo his remaining two years of college football and enter the 2019 NFL Draft. As a student, he majored in journalism.

Professional career
Haskins was drafted in the first round, 15th overall, of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins. Despite his high school and college jersey number of 7 being unofficially retired by the Redskins since the 1980s in honor of quarterback Joe Theismann, Haskins requested and was granted permission from him to wear it. Haskins signed his four-year rookie contract on May 9, 2019.

Personal life
Growing up in New Jersey, Haskins grew up a New York Giants fan. Haskins goes by the nickname Simba, taken from the protagonist of the 1994 film The Lion King, a nickname which he adopted as a child due to him having an afro at the time that reminded his mother of a lion's mane. Haskins uses the nickname and the film's coming-of-age story as motivation, as well as to promote his clothing brand, Kingdom of Pride. Haskins mentor during high school and college was NFL wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, whom he met through Mohamed Jabbie, one of his best friends and Sanu's nephew.