Last season, the passing game of the Pittsburgh Steelers was awful. As in second-worst in the NFL awful. Once Ben Roethlisberger was injured, the quarterback situation dropped off so far there was no amount of talent at wide receiver that could help make up the difference.
This season, the focus has been on the healthy return of Roethlisberger and how much this will help the passing offense. Unfortunately, when the media discusses the players who stand to benefit most, the name left out if James Washington.
But this is a mistake. There’s no doubt guys like JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnson will see an uptick in stats. But in terms of the team’s best true deep threat, none of them can match Washington. Pro Football Focus shared this little nugget about what Washington can do on downfield routes.
If you paid attention to Washington in college this should come as no surprise. Washington averaged nearly 20 yards per catch at Oklahoma State and he lived off of the go routes where he could use his strength to win those 50-50 balls. Even with Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges throwing him the football last season, Washington still averaged 16.7 yards per catch.
The Steelers spent a second-round pick on Chase Claypool who is being advertised as the team’s new deep threat. But if you go back and watch him in college, drag routes were where he did most of his damage. Roethlisberger loves taking shots downfield and Washington is going to surprise people when he becomes a top target for those deep throws.
