The National Football League represents a concentration of the best of the best football talent from across the world, sourced overwhelmingly from the many, many college football programs from around the country. Only a fraction of those players ever go on to sniff an NFL contract.
But even within the big tent, there is the best of the best of the best. The Pittsburgh Steelers have a few of those, and they haven’t been shy about unleashing them on their rookies this year. First-round OT Broderick Jones bore the brunt of DE Cameron Heyward. And third-round TE Darnell Washington got an unexpected early introduction to OLB T.J. Watt in the first backs-on-‘backers drill of camp, as he recalled to Randy Baumann on the WDVE Morning Show.
“At some point the coaches want to see what I can do”, he acknowledged. “I was like, at some point they may put me against T.J…I didn’t think it was right out the gate. That was like, my first reps. So when Coach [Mike Tomlin] called it out, he’s like, ’80, you up. You see 90 up’. So I’m like, ‘Hold up, 90?’.
Ninety, of course, is Watt’s number. Washington is 80. Eighty had never worked against an NFL player in pads before. Ninety is a Defensive Player of the Year and holds the NFL single-season sack record. But Washington held his own in his first series, even if he wasn’t expecting it.
“I was like, ‘Oh dang, out the gate. No warm-up, no nothing’”, he said recalling the moment he heard Tomlin call Watt’s number as his opponent. “I went into it confident. I take pride in blocking. Got some things to correct, but that’s just how I play”.
Now, his physique supplies him with a certain natural level of confidence. He is 6-foot-7 and his listed 264 pounds is probably conservative. Watt is not the biggest linebacker in the world, though he’s certainly no shrimp, either, but the size advantage was clear here.
One can fairly wonder if Watt pulled his punches. He probably did, if we’re being honest. But that’s a pairing that will come up in practice frequently, I would imagine. After all, that’s what Tomlin wants to see out of Washington, continually testing him. “We’re gonna make him confirm it every day”, he said.
Washington acknowledged that he was clearly on the losing end the next time he was pitted against Watt a few days later, but that was a given. The perennial Pro Bowler is arguably the best defensive player in football right now and for the past several years, so he’s going to make a lot of people look bad, no matter their size.
But what better preparation for a player like Washington to have that matchup in practice every day? If you can learn to hold your own against Watt, you’ll be able to get a handle on any opponent that comes your way.
