Although it’s just practice, Pittsburgh Steelers rookie TE Darnell Washington has now recorded a touchdown in three consecutive days—at least by the decree of his head coach. On a day without pads, he capped a two-minute drive with an explosive reception; he was initially ruled stopped short of the goal line in the non-tackling session, but Mike Tomlin overruled, calling it a touchdown.
“They’re not going to stop that big guy from falling into the end zone”, he reasoned after practice when asked how and why that play became a touchdown, via the team’s website. “Some people make suggestions, and some people make decisions. I decided he scored”.
It’s a more than reasonable supposition to make, given the physical, 6-foot-7, 264-pound frame he has to work with. Under game circumstances, it’s very unlikely he gets stopped. Here is how Alex Kozora described the play from the stands, which ended the final two-minute drill of the day for the first-team offense:
Time running out, though the clock is away from me and I don’t know how much is left. Trubisky with a nice touch pass down the right seam to Darnell Washington, who catches it in stride, at about the 7-yard line. He rumbles his way to the goal line. The refs ruled him down at the one but no one is stopping him from getting in, I promise you that. Tomlin called it a touchdown and I’ll do the same.
Sounds about right to me, even if I admittedly didn’t see it with my own eyes. But I’ve seen enough of the way he played in college and in brief video glimpses since coming to Pittsburgh to have a pretty good idea of whether or not he would have made it into the end zone in a live-tackling situation.
The question with Washington is whether it’s just a matter of experience or skill. Not to draw a far too lofty comparison, but that’s how Tomlin described OLB T.J. Watt as a rookie—not raw, but rather inexperienced. Is the Bulldog tight end simply in need of the opportunity?
Sometimes watching him catch, including that awesome one-handed stab during the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, you do look at him and think he has that natural ability that you simply have to nurture. What’s his ceiling as a pass-catcher? I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.
Partially because of his blocking ability but primarily due to the talented pass-catchers around him, including likely 2024 first-round TE Brock Bowers, Washington didn’t get used a lot in the passing game at Georgia. But he made some plays when he did.
Though he caught just 45 passes over three years in Athens, he made them count, putting up 774 yards. Two of his three touchdowns came last season. That low scoring total feels more indicative of the Bulldogs’ play-calling style in the end zone rather than a reflection of the work Washington can do in that area.
At least that’s how Tomlin feels about it.
