Steelers WR James Washington has been more impressive than you think

Steelers wide receiver James Washington has been putting on a show in recent weeks. Here’s why his performances have been more impressive than most fans realize.

James Washington has never been a player directly in the spotlight for the Steelers. As a rookie, he sat behind Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster on the depth chart, and looked lost with the opportunities he received.

At the start of the season, it appeared that not much had changed. Though we saw a noticeably trimmer player who cleaned up a lot of flaws in his route running, Washington still flew under the radar.

Over the past five weeks, however, the former second-round draft choice has been impossible to miss. Despite spotty quarterback play, Washington has been absurdly efficient with his looks. He has now hauled in 20 of 27 targets for 417 yards (20.8 yards per reception) and 3 touchdowns.

These numbers become even more impressive when we look at them in context. Washington has been doing this without Ben Roethlisberger and with no star receiver opposite of him to help alleviate pressure. Though Washington has received just 5.4 targets per game over the past 5 weeks, he has been incredibly efficient – averaging 83.4 yards per game and hauling in a touchdown every 9 targets.

While JuJu is the Steelers receiver that gets all of the attention, this stretch of games from Washington has been perhaps more impressive than any five-game span JuJu has had in his three-year career.

Smith-Schuster has been aided throughout his career by weapons like Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, and Martavis Bryant. Though he proved to be efficient as well, he was never the main focus of opposing defenses.

Washington, on the other hand, has dealt with bad quarterback play (mainly by Mason Rudolph) and has Diontae Johnson lined up opposite of him – a rookie receiver who has struggled in recent weeks.

I’m certainly not saying that Washington is a better player than JuJu, but his phenomenal play is inspiring. I wrote an article not too long ago about why the Steelers may not have a “number one” receiver on their team. Instead, they may have a trio of “number two” receivers in the making with Smith-Schuster, Washington, and Johnson.

However you want to label them, it’s more than encouraging to know that, despite not much assistance, James Washington has been incredible for Pittsburgh. His emergence could give the Steelers another legitimate receiving option going forward.