Dwayne Haskins has long been groomed for success, but maybe he was set up for failure

By the time Haskins, who wears “Haskins Jr.” on his jersey, was in second grade, he and his father were already driven to make him a great NFL quarterback.

Once, when the Haskins family lived in New Jersey, the father proudly told the football coach at South Brunswick High about his son’s accolades, such as being “the No. 2-ranked fourth-grader in North America.”

That was the A-plus football report card on Haskins all the way through the many football camps and youth leagues he played in, as well as his rigorous workout programs with his father. Still in elementary school, he was working with college trainers and practicing pass patterns with future NFL wide receiver Mohamed Sanu. By the fifth grade, he had toured the Ohio State locker room.

“The smarts, the size and what an arm!” they all said.

At Bullis School in Potomac, Md., and at Ohio State, where he had 50 touchdown passes in his one season as the starter, his dedication and attitude were praised as much as his rocket arm, even by stern Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer.

When Washington made him its first choice in the 2019 draft and gave him $14.4 million in guaranteed money, including an $8.5 million signing bonus, it seemed the goal of a 15-year family project had been realized.

That reality ended Monday when Washington released the quarterback with one game left in the season. Get out of here, he was told.

When a win Sunday in Philadelphia would make Washington the NFC East champion, and a loss would end its season, Coach Ron Rivera decided that kicking a healthy Haskins and his baggage out of the room — with nothing in return — was a swell idea.

He played 16 games since coming to Washington, 13 of them starts. Two more key numbers: 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Yes, that’s more than $1 million per scoring pass.

Washington knows about first-round quarterback flops. The town used up all its luck on Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh, the sixth pick in 1937. Since then, the franchise has picked a dozen quarterbacks in the first round, and the best was Norm Snead (second overall, 1961) — because he was traded for Sonny Jurgensen. By the time I reached high school, I had watched four first-round busts — Jack Scarbath (third overall, 1953), Ralph Guglielmi (fourth overall, 1955), Don Allard (fourth overall, 1959, zero career completions) and Richie Lucas (fourth overall, 1960).

Current fans cringe at the names of the recent first-rounders, one badly injured, one no good whatsoever and a couple who were just disappointments — Heath Shuler, Patrick Ramsey, Jason Campbell and Robert Griffin III.

Yet, with all this competition for gloom, Haskins now inhabits a stunning and sad place all his own. How did so much go so wrong so fast? And how much of the Haskins story is fact and how much perception?

Here are this season’s stats for two NFL quarterbacks. To save eyesight, skip studying them: They’re almost identical.

No. 1 completed 146 of 220 passes for 1,420 yards with four touchdowns, six interceptions and 19 sacks. His passer rating was 79.0 and his QBR 35.6.

No. 2 went 148 for 241 for 1,439 yards with five touchdowns, seven interceptions and 20 sacks. His passer rating was 73.0 and his QBR 30.7.

No. 1 is sainted Alex Smith, back from 17 surgeries on one leg, showing poise, leadership and the ability to manage games while posting a 4-1 record in his starts.

No. 2 is Haskins, whose work ethic, Washington coaches have intimated, is poor. They have also alleged that his knowledge of the team’s playbook is not at an NFL level.

Also, there was the $40,000 fine — and the stripping of his captaincy — as punishment after social media caught him maskless at a crowded party just hours after a loss. Making matters worse, it was his second violation of the NFL’s coronavirus protocols.

Didn’t he grasp that Rivera had just finished cancer treatment in October? You party hard in a pandemic with an immunocompromised coach? Did he not hear about the recent games lost by Baltimore and Denver largely because of players lost to positive tests?

I am mystified. What happened to the hard-working Haskins, from a family that included police officers, who from second grade until the day he arrived in the NFL was both extremely religious and a football student?

I’m annoyed. How can any athlete, no matter the distractions of millions and star treatment before you’ve mastered your craft, be so selfish? How can you be exposed to Smith and yet not talk about all the lessons-by-example you’ve learned from watching him, and talking to him, until after he took your job?

And I’m sad. Maybe I’m a sap for a 23-year-old who puts on a swagger facade when he senses that he’s way over his head in the job he has dreamed of, and that his whole family has focused on, since he was 7.

That showed his deep delusions about his ability and his unpreparedness for the NFL. When he took that selfie with a fan during his first career win last season — before the game was over — that was more of the same. When your father is telling others you’re the No. 2-rated quarterback in the country in the fourth grade, how does that help you cope with failure in the highest league under a microscope?

No wonder Haskins looked so bereft when Rivera took him out of the game for an undrafted journeyman from Old Dominion, Taylor Heinicke. Heinicke immediately led Washington down the field and almost into position to salvage the game.

This is all so Washington Football Team — and thus so depressingly predictable. Former coach Jay Gruden, an offensive guru, didn’t want to draft Haskins. Owner Daniel Snyder, who listens to whoever happens to be in his ear that year, did — and besides, his son also went to Bullis. This is exactly how not to run an NFL operation.

But there is more here than the usual Washington Football Team nonsense. And most of it is just sad.

Why wouldn’t big dreams, hard work and big talent in childhood feed into a certain amount of self-delusion and self-absorption? Why wouldn’t silly words — like telling the NFL how dumb it was for not valuing you more — slip out of your mouth?

Once the downward spiral starts, pulling you farther and farther from the destiny you thought was simply yours to claim, why would your judgment stay clear?

Dwayne Haskins is gone. Some will say, “They done him wrong.” Others think, “He got what he deserved.”

Why not settle for “good luck” in finding a new NFL landing place? A place where Haskins can start working on who he is, as a player and person, all over again.