Rookie Pittsburgh Steelers TE Darnell Washington played with a lot of offensive firepower during his time in Georgia—including one of his own current teammates, the second-year George Pickens, a wide receiver who seems to add to his highlight reel on a weekly basis.
But he’s especially had to share the spotlight with another tight end, Brock Bowers, who is likely to be a first-round draft pick in 2024, assuming he comes out next year. Was Washington fine with the Bulldogs feeding Bowers the ball so much over him?
“Uh…”, he replied with a somewhat nervous grin. “I’m more of a team player so if they throw Brock the ball more, so be it, as long as we come out with the victory. As long as I do my job”, he finally offered, via the team’s website. “I mean, I would’ve liked if I would’ve had some more targets, but it is what it is. It’s in the past, so I don’t really look back. I’m more of ‘what’s ahead of us right now’”.
Washington caught just 45 passes across three seasons in Georgia for 774 yards and three touchdowns. Most of that production came in 2022, accounting for 28 of those catches. They went for 454 yards and two touchdowns.
That pales in comparison to Bowers’ two-year workload, however. As a freshman in 2021, he had already caught 56 passes for 882 yards. He also found the end zone as whopping 13 times. Although he only scored seven touchdowns last season, he upped his other statistics with 63 receptions for 942 yards.
While Washington wouldn’t come out and say that he believed he should have been a bigger part of the passing game for the Bulldogs, he did offer that “if Coach would’ve featured me more, I would embrace it, kind of how I embrace any role on the team”.
And of course, he also alluded to his focus being on what’s ahead of us right now, and what he expects to be ahead of him is a larger role in the offense. He did say in the same interview that he will “hopefully” be used more in end-zone situations after scoring just three collegiate touchdowns. He has looked highly effective in the red zone during training camp so far.
While the Steelers already have a primary pass-catching tight end in Pat Freiermuth and are looking forward to finding ways to highlight Connor Heyward’s receiving abilities, they know that Washington presents them yet another weapon with whom they can mix and match to try to provide themselves with personnel advantages.
He is, after all, a 6-7, 264-pound man, and he looks and plays like every bit of it. He’s also got more maneuverability in that frame than you might expect by looking at him. Therefore, opposing linebackers had better be on notice whenever the Steelers decide to start calling his number in the passing game.
