Darnell Washington Eyes Bigger Receiving Role Under McCarthy: ‘Trust In Me Running The Same Thing Pat Runs’

Fresh off a new contract extension, Darnell Washington continues to eye a bigger receiving role in the Steelers’ offense. Having taken small steps each of his past three seasons, he is seeing encouraging signs under the new coaching staff. And given the new contract they just gave him, there may actually be something behind that.

While former Steelers OC Arthur Smith loved using Darnell Washington, he still featured primarily as a blocker. Not even just primarily, but by a significant margin. Across 546 offensive snaps, he only saw 43 targets. That still an improvement on the 25 targets he saw a year ago, but is there room for more?

“I guess that’s the plan, that’s the goal. Just got to wait and see”, Washington said, via the Steelers’ website, about having more opportunities to catch passes this year. When pressed whether that was his or the coaching staffs’, he admitted with a smile, “My goal, I guess”.

But it’s not without substance. For one thing, we know Darnell Washington has a quarterback who believes in him as a receiver. That’s a good place to start, but he’s also seeing the difference in how the new coaches are using him.

“It’s good. At least for me, I think it helps me with just opening up the route tree for me”, Washington said of how this year has differed thus far under Mike McCarthy’s coaching staff “A little bit more 11 [personnel] than Arthur Smith, but the coach [has] got trust in me running the same thing Pat [Freiermuth] runs”.

Freiermuth is, of course, the Steelers’ other tight end, who already has his extension. Across five seasons, he has 261 catches for 2,676 yards and 22 touchdowns. His production suffered last year under Smith, even if Washington saw more targets.

Coming out of college, most viewed Darnell Washington as a pure blocking tight end. Even early on, however, former Steelers HC Mike Tomlin always referenced that they saw more in him than that. Every time he’d make a play, even in practice, he referenced what they saw on tape or at the Combine. But it was a gradual process, something saying in October last year they “might just be discovering him”.

Washington put in a lot of extra work last offseason into his receiving craft, which he spoke about at length around this time last year. “I’m for sure different, just in the aspect of how to run this route during this coverage”, he said. “I feel like I’ve just improved, and reading the defense more, understanding my route and why I’m running it, if it’s a pick or whatever it may be”.

With another year under his belt, with more experience, under a new coaching staff, Darnell Washington hopes to take his game to yet another level. He went from 7 catches to 19 to 31 last year. While he’s stuck on two receiving touchdowns, that’s certainly an area that can change with more red-zone targets. But with a tall group of receivers, that may not be necessary.