Ron Rivera’s ‘cutoff point’ for Dwayne Haskins might be less of a threat, more of a challenge

In revealing the conversation Wednesday afternoon, Haskins did not say how long the two men talked or where it was or how angry or calm Rivera might have been. Mostly, he said the meeting was “great” and that he needs to “be better for this offense” and show “what [the team] needs to see from me.”

Haskins seemed happy that they had talked.

Still, something had changed in Rivera’s tone that day when he spoke about Haskins at his morning video news conference. After saying Sunday that he was committed to Haskins as his starting quarterback and wondering aloud what good it would do for Haskins’s development to bench him, his Monday comments contained words such as “regression,” and Rivera conceded that Haskins could lose the job if he continued to play poorly, saying “there is a cutoff point for me.”

Rivera’s words could be seen as a warning to a young quarterback — that just because he was a first-round draft pick last season and the team’s presumed quarterback of the future, that doesn’t mean he has an entire season to prove himself. It could have been a reminder that Rivera still can bench him and the team could eventually look elsewhere for its starting quarterback.

But they also sounded a lot like a challenge, similar to the one Rivera gave Haskins in January. Shortly after the coach was hired, he told Haskins he would have to earn the starting quarterback job despite being the obvious choice to lead the team. Urban Meyer, who coached Haskins at Ohio State, said he told Rivera that he had learned over time that Haskins needed to be challenged on a regular basis to reach his maximum performance.

Rivera never used the word “challenge” Monday to describe his approach to Haskins. Instead, his hints that Haskins’s future as the starter could be in doubt dangled heavy in the air. Still, Haskins had responded well to that first January meeting with Rivera, working hard to lose weight, learn the new offense and improve mechanical imperfections.

Whatever was said in that talk with Rivera and in subsequent ones that Haskins has had with Alex Smith — the former starter who has been a confidant over the past year — Haskins appeared to take them seriously.

“In all honesty, I know I can be better,” Haskins said Wednesday. “I have to be better for this offense. In order for that to happen, I have to put the work in. Everyone can sit there and feel sorry for yourself or have a pity party or blame other external factors for why it is what it is. But I really preached this offseason being self-aware and understanding of your mistakes and understand how you can progress and get better for yourself.”

He said he studied what went wrong Sunday in Cleveland and how he can learn from mistakes such as rushing to make throws or looking too long at his receiver. He sounded like someone who had been pushed by his coaches to understand the importance of improving quickly.

“I just want to be better at everything,” Haskins said Wednesday. “I’m still young. I can’t just sit here and act like I arrived or I made it.”

Later he added: “I want to be a Hall of Fame quarterback one day. By God, that’s not going to be easy. I want it to be hard, hard as hell, just so I can show that I can do it and prove to myself and to my teammates that they believe and trust in me.”

While Rivera has often said he still considers Haskins to be in his rookie season, much the way Cam Newton was in Rivera’s first season as Carolina Panthers coach, he never publicly pushed Newton that year the way he has Haskins. Instead, he gave Newton the job at the start and supported his quarterback despite Newton being intercepted three times in two games and four in another.

Newton was a different quarterback, however, a No. 1 overall pick with rare ability. Newton threw for 4,051 yards, ran for another 706 that 2011 season and was named the league’s rookie of the year. Rivera did not have to publicly challenge Newton in the same way.

By saying there could be a point when he benches Haskins, Rivera is opening a potentially dangerous door, inviting weekly questions about making a quarterback change. Which is why the phrase “cutoff point” felt less like a deadline and more like a dare.

Will Haskins meet this challenge, too?

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