Impending Steelers camp battle: Mason Rudolph vs. Dwayne Haskins
Both were known coming out of college as having strong throwing arms.
Most around the league believed both Dwayne Haskins and Mason Rudolph’s biggest strengths coming out of college would be their ability to throw the deep ball. While I can agree that they have good arms, I wouldn’t go as far as saying either of them would be like Matt Ryan or Patrick Maholmes with the deep ball. There isn’t a ton to go off of in terms of comparing their ability to throw the deep ball as neither have a large sample size of throwing deep in the NFL.
I will say that the lack of Haskins’ sample size in the NFL helps him in this comparison. Football Outsiders had Mason Rudolph as the 2nd worst deep-ball thrower in terms of accuracy in 2019. Haskins, unfortunately, wasn’t on the chart, as Case Keenum had more deep attempts in 2019 and they only used 1 quarterback per team in these comparisons. The worst was Kyle Allen who played for Carolina under Ron Rivera at this time. We can assume that Haskins can throw the deep ball better because if he did any worse that would make him practically the worst in the league. It is pretty safe to assume that Haskins, a former top 15 pick, is not the worst in the league at the deep ball when it was supposed to be his strong point coming into the league.
To me what truly separates the two quarterbacks’ talent throwing the ball is the arm angles that Haskins can utilize on his throws. With a longer wingspan, he uses his length well when throwing the ball in tight spots. We haven’t seen Rudolph really try to sidearm or throw crossbody which is normally a good thing. Yet, in the modern NFL being able to throw across your body, or from your side is becoming another skill that players are trying to learn.
Looking at players with baseball backgrounds like Pat Maholmes, Russell Wilson, and Kyler Murray, the extra angles they can throw from have become a bonus. Haskins is showing potential to truly be able to throw to any spot on the field regardless of where he is in terms of the hash marks. I’m not saying he can throw with either arm, or crossbody a 50-yard bomb downfield like Maholmes, but keeping the entire secondary in play is a bonus that separates the two with similar accuracy, depth, and ball placement. Angles matter nowadays, and Haskins has more of them.