The final preliminary portion of the offseason before training camp is set to wrap up today for the Pittsburgh Steelers with the last minicamp practice. The next time we see the Steelers, they will be in Latrobe, and before long they will be putting the pads on.
That’s when we should begin to learn more about some of the team’s new players, whether rookies or veterans, who make their money in the trenches. I’m talking about guys like Broderick Jones and Isaac Seumalo and Keeanu Benton and Breiden Fehoko.
And also rookie third-round tight end Darnell Washington, who bills himself as a sixth lineman on his social media profile. The big man likes to block. So far he’s only been able to really take it out on the practice sleds, but he’s gotten noticed, including in his own room.
“Darnell? He’s great, man”, fellow tight end Pat Freiermuth told reporters yesterday via the team’s website. “He does some things very natural to him, and he’s a good route runner and he definitely is very physical”.
At 6’7” and 264 pounds, Washington doesn’t just look the part. His college tape shows him to have the makings of a very good blocking tight end. But the Steelers didn’t draft him just for that. They also believe he has more untapped potential as a playmaker, having had fewer opportunities in that department in a diverse Georgia offense.
One thing that we have heard being talked about consistently since at least the draft has been the prospects of the offense using more heavy sets, 12 personnel, maybe even 13 personnel. After all, Zach Gentry is no schlub at the position, either.
But there are high hopes that Washington could be that sort of final piece of the puzzle, the player who can really add important dimensions and unpredictability to a two-tight-end set, not signaling to opposing defenses whether a run or a pass is coming—and with RPOs hopefully a part of the offense this year, they can decide which is coming at the line based on which way the defense leans.
Washington has looked good in shorts so far, but one gets the sense that he’s not going to be any kind of shrinking violent when the pads do some on in Latrobe. After all, how many players is he going to face that are bigger than he is? In an earlier era, he would no question be an offensive tackle.
I do like the fact that Freiermuth used the word “natural”, because I think that really speaks to what you see on film with Washington. The things that he does never feel out of character but rather are an extension of his physique and his playing personality. That’s why the blocking sled slides so effortlessly backward like Jonathan Scott.
