When the Pittsburgh Steelers took Georgia TE Darnell Washington in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft, they knew they were getting incredible value relative to his draft slot. Washington was often projected as an early Day Two pick, sliding in the draft to knee concerns, falling into Pittsburgh’s lap at 93 overall in the third round.
Washington joined OT Broderick Jones, CB Joey Porter Jr., and DL Keeanu Benton as the team’s impressive haul through the first two days of the draft with OLB Nick Herbig, CB Cory Trice Jr., and OL Spencer Anderson following him to round out a strong draft class.
Through the first week of training camp, Washington believes that his rookie class has the makings of an all-time great in the city of Pittsburgh.
“I feel like this rookie class special,” Washington said to the media via video from Steelers.com. “I feel like everybody’s doing their part. Joey, to me, he’s having a very good camp. Broderick is having a good camp, Nick’s having a great camp. So, I feel like just with the rookies, not only that we bonded before this, I feel like we still bonding as well. Like even me going against Nick, you know. Just after the rep we actually talked about it. He just went through it, and I told him like what I tried to do. And he just told me what he did, and he gave me some tips and pointers. So, I feel like we just bond.”
The rookies have been turning heads in a big way thus far through the first few practices in Latrobe. Broderick Jones has represented himself well as has Porter, who has gotten some run with the first-string defense and secured his first interception on Tuesday. Benton has been mixing in along the defensive line whereas Washington had two dominant reps against OLB T.J. Watt in backs on ‘backers yesterday. Nick Herbig has been the talk of camp, winning with speed off the edge as well as utilizing moves he’s learned from Watt himself to beat Washington yesterday in backs on ‘backers.
While Cory Trice Jr. went down with a season-ending injury yesterday, the rest of the 2023 rookie class looks promising in terms of all making the team and providing meaningful contributions in the first season, outside of Spencer Anderson. GM Omar Khan hit his first draft out of the park, and it appears that Pittsburgh is reaping early dividends as the rookies start to flash with the pads on and get closer together as a group before preseason action get underway.
