They didn’t come as a package deal, but they might as well have. The Pittsburgh Steelers managed to get a pair of Georgia Bulldogs in the first and third rounds of the 2023 NFL Draft in tackle Broderick Jones and tight end Darnell Washington.
While they did not follow each other in order in the draft—Washington’s stock fell some due to apparent concerns about his long-term durability— they’ll probably spend a lot of time in Pittsburgh doing what they did in Georgia, which is lining up side by side.
“With me and Broderick on the same side, I know we got lots of chemistry”, the tight end told reporters yesterday, via the team’s website. “Sometimes he’d be funny. I’ve just got memories with him. It’s a good feeling just to be on his side again and just be on the same team as him”.
Washington at one point billed himself as the sixth lineman and that’s an identifier head coach Mike Tomlin picked up and ran with. Blocking is going to be a huge component of what the Steelers are going to ask him to do as soon as he steps onto the field.
The good news is that he has a lot of experience over the past two years working to the left of Jones, the national champion Bulldogs’ left tackle, so as he told reporters, they already have a certain amount of chemistry that they bring with them.
Of course, neither are guaranteed a starting job. In fact, Washington is not going to start, at least ahead of Pat Freiermuth, except possibly in two-tight-end sets. Jones has a fair chance of winning the starting left tackle job—as fans want and hope—but he will have to earn it over Dan Moore Jr. in the assessment of the coaching staff.
Both players are regarded as physical for their respective positions, something that the Steelers certainly appear to have been looking for coming into this offseason as they try to build a more imposing offense. Wide receiver George Pickens, a 2022 second-round pick and another Bulldog, brings that same characteristic to his own position.
The college connections will only make it that much easier for the rookies to acclimate themselves both to the Steelers and to the NFL environment, something that Wisconsin Badger Keeanu Benton is also experiencing with multiple college teammates and alumni there.
But there might not be a college connection that plays a bigger role on the field in the near future for Pittsburgh than that between Jones and Washington, who have the potential to be a truly dynamic and dominant blocking duo, as they often were in Georgia. The Steelers didn’t set out to reunite this pair, but when the league gave them the opportunity, they did so with enthusiasm.
