Darnell
Washington.
Darnell
Washington.
Georgia· 6'7"· 264 lb· 4.64s 40
"A left tackle's frame with a wing athlete's timing: Pittsburgh drafted him in the third round for the blocks, then paid him four years later for the catches almost nobody in the class believed were coming."Pre-draft read
Washington is a true in-line Y tight end whose first job is to move people. Georgia used him as a wing, as a tackle-over sixth lineman and occasionally detached, and the tape is a study in leverage for a 6-foot-7 frame: wide base, hips snapped into contact, blocks finished with intent rather than a lean.
As a receiver he is a red-zone and third-down problem more than a route technician. He wins on box-outs, back-shoulder throws and seam shots where his catch radius erases contested-catch math, and he is a load to bring down after the grab. The signature is the combination: a legitimate sixth-lineman blocker who tested like a wing athlete, the trait package teams chase and rarely find.
Gap and duo-heavy run offense that lives in 12 and 13 personnel and uses the tight end as a sixth lineman before asking him to win vertically.
Year 1: heavy-personnel blocking Y and red-zone target. Ceiling: full-time starting Y who anchors the run game and clears 500 receiving yards on seams and box-out throws.
An 11-personnel spread offense that detaches its tight end on option routes and asks him to separate against nickel corners from a two-way-go — that scheme wastes the block-first frame and exposes his route nuance.
Value peaks next to a mobile tackle and a play-action heavy passing game where his releases come off run action.
Georgia TE Darnell Washington Highlights
College tape showing the in-line blocking finish and catch radius at Georgia.
Darnell Washington Blocks that Keep Getting Nastier
Steelers run-game reps highlighting point-of-attack power and second-level climb.
Darnell Washington: Best of 2025
2025 breakout season receiving reps with Aaron Rodgers, seams and red-zone wins.
Washington entered the 2023 cycle as one of the most physically arresting prospects in the class, a tight end built like a left tackle who ran 4.64 at 264 pounds with 34 3/8-inch arms and 11-inch hands. Evaluators did not have to project the athletic profile; the question was always what the offense would ask him to do with it.
At Georgia he was the blocking half of a two-tight-end room built around Brock Bowers, and the production line reflects it: 45 catches for 774 yards and three touchdowns across three seasons, with a career-best 28 grabs for 454 yards as a junior on back-to-back national champions. A foot issue cost him the first month of 2021. The signature snaps were run-game reps against SEC edge defenders, where he consistently displaced starters, and the flag was equally obvious — a receiving resume too thin to argue he was a featured target.
The board loved the traits and discounted the role. Dane Brugler had him 30th overall, yet he slid into the back of the third round as teams weighed medical questions and the positional value of a blocking specialist. Pittsburgh taking him at 93 was the value bet of that range: pay third-round money for a first-round frame and let the offense grow into him.
- 01
Point-of-attack power
Plays with real hip snap and finish as an in-line blocker, regularly displacing SEC edge defenders and sealing backside gaps in the run game.
- 02
Rare frame and length
At 6-foot-7 with 34 3/8-inch arms and 11-inch hands, he covers up defenders no other tight end can reach and offers a catch radius that erases tight windows.
- 03
Athletic outlier
A 4.64 forty and 10-foot-2 broad jump at 264 pounds put him in the top tier of tested tight ends, giving him seam speed teams do not expect from a sixth lineman.
- 04
Contested-catch reliability
Boxes out defenders like a power forward on back-shoulder and red-zone throws, and plays through contact at the catch point without losing the football.
- 05
Second-level climb
Gets to linebackers cleanly on zone and gap concepts, adjusting on the move and staying attached rather than glancing off targets in space.
- 01
Thin receiving resume
Just 45 catches in three college seasons behind Brock Bowers, so the route tree and target volume were largely unproven entering the league.
- 02
Route nuance
Builds speed rather than snapping into breaks, and his separation on intermediate routes depends more on size than on stem detail or tempo change.
- 03
Medical questions
Pre-draft evaluations flagged durability concerns that contributed to his slide out of the top 60 despite a first-round trait profile.
- 04
Play-speed pad level
At his height he can drift upright late in reps, letting quicker defenders work under his hands and reset the leverage he earned initially.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.64sp50
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 122inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- 4.08sp50
- Bench
- 21repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Georgia | 10 | 7 | 166 | 0 |
| 2021 | Georgia | 11 | 10 | 154 | 1 |
| 2022 | Georgia | 15 | 28 | 454 | 2 |
| Career | — | 36 | 45 | 774 | 3 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A durable blocking Y with 30-plus catch seasons and situational value in the passing game.
The size-mismatch red-zone version if the receiving role ever fully unlocks, though Washington is a far better blocker.
A career-long sixth-lineman specialist whose receiving usage never grows past a handful of targets per month.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Darnell Washington played in 17 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers in his rookie season (2023), primarily as a blocking tight end.
Pittsburgh eased him in exactly as expected. He played all 17 games as a rookie in 2023 with seven catches for 61 yards, functioning as a sixth lineman in heavy personnel while Pat Freiermuth handled the receiving work. The 2024 season brought another full slate and a modest bump to 19 receptions for 200 yards and a touchdown, still with blocking as the primary assignment. The jump came in 2025: 31 catches for 364 yards and a score on 43 targets in 16 games, with Aaron Rodgers throwing him seams and red-zone fades, and a PFF overall grade that placed him in the top half of qualifying tight ends.
The market settled the argument in June 2026, when Pittsburgh handed him a four-year, $42 million extension with $21 million guaranteed and entered the season treating him as the clear No. 1 tight end. In hindsight the pick looks like a rare case of the third round buying a genuine starter: the receiving production never exploded, but the blocking floor was real from day one and the target share arrived on schedule once the offense trusted him. The slide was less about him than about how the league prices tight ends who block first.
Data note: from San Francisco via Carolina