The best wide receiver that the Pittsburgh Steelers have to offer is also their least appreciated.
The Steelers have what is currently one of the most bragworthy receiving units in the entire National Football League. This corps includes four notable talents that are frequent faces seen on the passing game. Those four are the giant rookie target Chase Claypool, the social media icon JuJu Smith-Schuster, the somewhat inconsistent yet still extremely reliable Diontae Johnson, and…who’s that other guy again? Oh yeah, James Washington. What is he known for? Well, not much, other than being an outstanding spectacle on the football field whenever he is given an ounce of responsibility.
In other words, I would say that Washington is known for how underused he is. But despite how unfortunate such a predicament may be, it is not completely incomprehensible. As previously stated, Pittsburgh has quite the depth on their receiving lineup. With that, one is bound to be overlooked to some degree, especially with a route-running tight end like Eric Ebron also being in the offensive drive on a consistent basis.
Nonetheless, I still take issue with James being underutilized, and to a rather noticeable extent, no less. This is especially frustrating when you can argue that, both on and off the gridiron, Washington is perhaps the best receiver in the Steel City to begin with. With there being talks about possibly seeing an altered version of this offense in the fall, what better time is there to try and help James Washington break through to his true potential than now? With that in mind, let’s take a look at three reasons why James Washington is the overall best wide receiver that the Pittsburgh Steelers have on their roster right now.
#1–He’s not controversial
In my previous installments of picking apart the antics of Pittsburgh WRs, it is evident that I have become no stranger to criticizing the questionable nature of a couple of their behaviors. With that said, I will try to keep this one brief.
James Washington standing alongside his fellow receivers is like NBA all-star Tim Duncan standing amongst Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan. Duncan was great too, but he never made headlines for his statements or actions; he was never a figure that was plastered all over the media like the others were. That’s how Washington appears whenever his association with JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool is acknowledged. He does what he can to keep his name out of the source for any reason other than his play, and I personally feel that there is something to applaud in regards to such maturity. Maybe his colleagues can jot down a note or two for future reference.
#2–He’s never mentioned disparagingly
Whether it is in regards to offseason decisions or poor on-the-field performance, Washington’s name is one that rarely comes into the discussion. Meanwhile, JuJu Smith-Schuster’s future with the Steelers has been anything but guaranteed, with some even declaring that he is not worth bringing back, considering cap space struggles and his individual quality. If Chase Claypool was not a rookie with the stats that he amassed last season, he would have probably had a good chance of being thrown into this boat as well.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Diontae Johnson. While he, unlike JuJu, has not been widely debated as far as his own respective worthiness of returning to Pittsburgh, he has been well-acquainted with social media hate as well (courtesy of Steelers fans throughout the stretch of the regular season predominantly). The reason for this is his tendency to drop the ball in big games, most namely. To hopefully no surprise, that has to be the absolute last bit of analysis that any receiver would want tied to their name and, subsequently, their eventual legacy.
But again, James Washington has seemingly avoided these talks, as he has not been subject to any of them on a major scale. Now I guess if one was a doubter of this observation, he or she could argue that he has not been criticized for his play because he is not relied upon as much as the others. But while this is true, being relied upon less is not the same as never being relied upon at all. And when James is out there, he’s usually on fire.
Underusing a valuable player would normally result in discussions of release, right? Whether it was by methods of trading or free agency? However, if that is the case, why has Washington’s future in Pittsburgh almost never been questioned? To me, that confirms that he is indeed seen as an important piece of the offensive regime in the eyes of the Steelers organization itself, as he should be.
#3–His stats are still impressive
Despite all the overlooking, all the underutilization, and all the hype surrounding his fellow targets, James is still an impactful force to behold on every play he takes part in. If you refuse to take my word for it, the stats do not lie. A player who showed up in every game, and was used convincingly less than three receivers and even a tight end, still had the second-highest average amount of yards per reception.
As far as scoring is concerned, Washington brought in as many TD catches (5) as the aforementioned tight end Eric Ebron and only two less than WR Diontae Johnson. These same stats tell us that Diontae was by far the most relied upon receiver, with 16 more targets on the season than second-place JuJu Smith-Schuster.
So what we see here is James Washington’s competitive playability within the passing game when compared to that of the rest of Pittsburgh’s receiving stars, yet he had 35 fewer targets than a tight end and only 13 more than James Conner, a running back. Those previously referenced 5 touchdowns were reeled in with only 392 receiving yards all season long. This means that Washington averaged a TD reception every 78.4 of his yards, which is easily the most efficient amongst every single Steeler who caught at least one touchdown pass this last year. So yeah, he’s pretty darn crucial to the offense. Clearly, he comes up big whenever such is expected of him, regardless of how little he may be asked to do so in relation to a multitude of his teammates.
So if I were to summarize, I would deem James Washington as the perfect wide receiver to have. He’s quiet about how great he is and lets his performance speak for him. He also never has to be pulled aside by his coaches to be told to stop acting out. Most importantly, he is dominant without any attention being paid to how much or how little spotlight he is getting in the process. He’s there to win, and that is all. Especially if JuJu doesn’t come back for next season, the Steelers really need to work on how they can get this guy bumped up to a more executive role on their receiving corps.