Steelers depth chart: Why James Washington deserves a bigger role in 2021

The Steelers have four young receivers who could be a big part of the offense in 2021, but here’s why James Washington deserves a much bigger role this year.

When talking about the wide receivers on the Pittsburgh Steelers and the potential impact they could have on the team next year, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, and Chase Claypool are the names that are typically brought up in conversation (I’ve experienced this first hand). But what about James Washington?

It wasn’t all that long ago that the football world was high on Washington. Entering the draft as a former second-round pick out of Oklahoma State, Washington was one of the most productive receivers we have seen in college football in quite some time. In fact, Washington accounted for 25.7 percent of his team’s market share and had a remarkable breakout age at just 18.4 years old (97th percentile), according to PlayerProfiler.com.

Unfortunately, Washington struggled during his rookie season, and couldn’t get on the same page with Ben Roethlisberger when he was given the opportunity in 2018. Because of his slow start in the NFL, I think fans are too soon to forget about a very solid offensive weapon.

Why Washington deserves more opportunity on the Steelers

On paper, Washington doesn’t have any defining traits. He has very average size for the position and tested as an average athlete at the NFL Combine. However, what he excels at can’t be measured. The young receiver has terrific hands in traffic and the ability to track down the ball with the best of them. The importance of these traits can’t be understated.

It was thanks to these traits that Washington became arguably the most reliable pass-catching option on the team in 2019 when Ben Roethlisberger went down with an elbow injury. Despite low target quality, he managed to lead the team in receiving yards and often bailed his young quarterbacks (Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges) out of trouble.

With Chase Claypool joining the team as a second-round pick last year, the Steelers reverted back to using Washington in a limited fashion. He ranked just 117th among NFL receivers in target rate last season, according to PlayerProfiler.com.

Despite being just 99th in the NFL in catchable target rate, Washington chipped in nearly 400 yards and 5 touchdowns while averaging over 13.0 yards per reception, via Pro Football Reference. In fact, he averaged more yards both before and after the catch than JuJu Smith Schuster last season and showcased the ability to move with the ball in his hands.

Most importantly, Washington was perhaps the most reliable receiver on the team in big moments last year, and he showed up big on the 3rd downs (and even 4th downs) when given the opportunity.

Pittsburgh’s top three receivers combined to average 127 targets each last season. Washington had just 56. I’m not yet suggesting that he should leapfrog any of the receivers ahead of him on Steelers depth chart, but there’s no doubt he should be given more opportunities in the passing game.