Entering the 2023 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t exactly need another tight end on the roster behind standout Pat Freiermuth and alongside the emerging, do-everything Connor Heyward, especially after inking veteran Zach Gentry to a new one-year deal just one month before the draft.
Yet when star Georgia tight end Darnell Washington — all 6-foot-7, 270 pounds of him — fell to the third round and No. 93 overall with Pittsburgh on the board, GM Omar Khan couldn’t pass on him.
Now, with Washington in the fold the Steelers tight end room is loaded top to bottom, making it a real strength for Pittsburgh entering the 2023 season with Freiermuth the star entering the season and Heyward gaining a lot of attention for his great hands. Washington is seemingly generating the most buzz of the bunch though ahead of the start of the season.
That buzz has come from his quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky in recent weeks and continued on Monday when head coach Mike Tomlin praised him on The Rich Eisen Show. But it was former Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., now an analyst on NFL Network, who had the most interesting comments of Washington.
Smith, who spent a day in Steelers training camp as part of his TV series called “NFL’s Most Interesting Jobs,” spoke glowingly of what he saw from Washington in Latrobe. In the latest episode of his podcast, Cut To It, Smith stated that the Steelers have that “old, reliable tight end” again in Washington, much like they had with Heath Miller and Jesse James before.
“I think Darnell Washington is that next tight end that you’ll see have a pretty good career and play eight to 10 years,” Smith said, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “Not blow your socks off, but he just chips away. He’s just hitting you in the same spot a million times and his impact will be deeply, deeply rooted.
“… I think he gives them that old reliable tight end that you’ve known the Pittsburgh Steelers to always have.”
Throughout the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers, that old, reliable tight end has seemingly always been there, as Smith points out.
Players like Miller and James certainly come to mind first, but there’s also names like Eric Green, Randy Grossman, Bennie Cunningham and Mark Bruener that should be at the forefront of the discussion, too, when it comes to the tight end position in Steelers history.
Right now, Washington reminds many of the big, physical specimen that was Green with the Steelers in the 90s. Washington is a great in-line blocking tight end, one who has made a significant impact in that regard already. Where he continues to develop though is as a pass catcher.
He doesn’t have a full route tree yet, but Tomlin has been pleased with Washington’s development in the passing game, He told Eisen that Washington has been better than maybe the Steelers even anticipated as a receiving option so far.
As he continues to develop, he should only get better overall. Once he figures out his craft as a receiver, the sky is the limit for the big, hulking tight end. If all goes well, the Steelers will have that old, reliable tight end once again in Washington, like Smith believes.
