Washington Promotes Two QBs - But Why?

Not only is Dwayne Haskins starting but Taylor Heinicke and Steven Montez are both expected to be in uniform Sunday for the Washington Football Team. But ... Why?

ASHBURN, Va. - The Washington Football Team made one expected move official on Saturday morning, promoting young veteran quarterback Taylor Heinicke and signing him to the 53-man roster.

The interesting added move is this: Washington is apparently also elevating Steven Montez from the practice squad as well.

READ MORE: WFT Promotes Two QB's While Haskins Plays 'Spiritual Warfare' 

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So now with Alex Smith down and Dwayne Haskins set to start, the Washington Football Team will apparently have three quarterbacks in uniform Sunday and on the active list.

Why are they doing this? With the amount of injuries that Washington has dealt with at quarterback this year, in game, it could simply be about having extra insurance in a critical game.

If something happens to Haskins and Heinicke has to come in, Washington wouldn't have a backup to replace Heinicke, if he also got injured.

That makes sense, despite not feeling the need to do this all year.

The other part of this is, if we're being totally honest, "the freedom to operate'' on Haskins has to be very short - and the hook to pull him  is very at-the-ready.

If Haskins struggles and is making the type of mistakes that he was making before he was benched, does the staff of Ron Rivera, Scott Turner and Ken Zampese pull the plug early, put in Heinicke (who they trust on some level and have seen operate the offense), while also having Montez on-call to go in if Heinicke goes out, instead of reverting back to Haskins?

We can't and shouldn't rule this out. Has Haskins really improved since his benching? We shall see.

When he played, mental mistakes in pass/blitz protection were a major problem for Haskins, and something that drove the staff nuts. It happened repeatedly over his final three games as the starter. 

The other theory could be to keep the Seahawks guessing on who the true backup quarterback is, though playing poker with opposing coach Pete Carroll on this; seems like a waste of time,

If they do dress all three quarterbacks, they might have to go short elsewhere on the game day roster. Special teams will figure to be an important piece of the puzzle and the WFT is already short because of Deshazor Everett going on IR and other injuries.

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Washington already has had to rule out Smith, Cole Holcomb and Kevin Pierre-Lewis from Sunday's game. It's likely that Antonio Gibson will be a fourth inactive, so perhaps the offensive staff feels they have room to have the extra insurance they haven't all year.

WFT fans hope they won't need to cash in that policy.