Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: TE Darnell Washington
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The rookie tight end had his best day of training camp so far yesterday, uncoincidentally the first day in pads, after a bit of a rough start last week.
I won’t lie. I’ve been waiting for this. I assumed it would happen, which is the main reason I didn’t pull the trigger on including him in this series last week with a down value after I did the same for WR Calvin Austin III (don’t worry, he’ll be back with an up value soon as well).
No, I’m not in camp, but based on all witness testimonies, Darnell Washington struggled through the first three days. He looked like a rookie in the sense that there was still a lot for him to learn, not just about being a professional, or about the offense and the scheme, but also about being a complete tight end.
The reason Austin got the down value and not Washington is because Washington has the benefit of being a rookie, whereas I was more comfortable jumping the gun with a second-year wide receiver coming off an injury, even knowing full well that in all likelihood he was going to bounce back quickly. A rough start was not anticipated for him. Everybody should have known it was possible for the big rookie tight end.
But he took to pads like a duck in water yesterday when he finally got the chance to display his physicality, something about which he couldn’t hide his enthusiasm back in minicamp. That included a pair of successful reps against none other than OLB T.J. Watt in the backs-on-backers drill.
Every rookie comes along at his own pace. So, it took Washington a few days to start feeling more comfortable in what he was doing in training camp. Now that he has a positive day under his belt, it should fuel his confidence and allow him to start stacking positive days.
The next few weeks will be key in determining what the early portions of his rookie season will look like. He could be anywhere from a semi-starter to a gameday inactive depending upon the level of readiness he is able to put on display, not just sporadically, but over the course of time in a consistent pattern.
