**Player: TE Darnell Washington**
**Stock Value: Down**
**Reasoning:** _Darnell Washington’s hope to carve out a bigger role as a receiver took a beating with the Jonnu Smith trade. Smith caught 88 passes for 884 yards and 8 touchdowns last year, and the Steelers are paying him $12 million. They acquired him to catch passes, and they already have Pat Freiermuth. Odds are, there simply won’t be enough targets to significantly increase his usage._
When the Steelers drafted Darnell Washington, they by no means dismissed his potential as a receiving option in their offense. But they drafted him to block, and emphasized his self-billing as a sixth offensive lineman. Going into his third season, though, he wants to take on more of a role in the passing game.
With the Steelers acquiring Pro Bowl receiving TE Jonnu Smith, that doesn’t seem incredibly likely. They now have multiple tight ends capable of putting up big numbers, having already paid Pat Freiermuth. While Smith isn’t a long-term answer, where does this leave Darnell Washington?
At the very least, he may have to put his receiving dreams aside. Granted, the Steelers’ lack of proven depth at wide receiver could help funnel more targets to the passing game. But how often will Darnell Washington be better than the third tight end target on a passing play?
Last season, Washington saw his targets jump up from 10 to 25. He went from 7 catches to 19, with 200 receiving yards and one touchdown. Washington even showed some YAC ability, throwing a stiff-arm here, a hurdle there. And reportedly, this offseason, he has worked on his quickness and route-running a fair bit. He slimmed down, too, and vowed to slim down more before training camp.
Whatever his potential jump in the passing game was before the break, though, is now substantially less with Jonnu Smith on the roster. They aren’t going to pay him $12 million for nothing—he is going to catch a bunch of passes. So is Pat Freiermuth, and so is DK Metcalf. So where does that leave Darnell Washington, at least in that regard? I’m sure he would love to know right about now.
_With the new league year underway and the Steelers turning their roster over, it’s once again time to “take stock”. It took a while, but we finally saw some of that_ [_change the team talked about_](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/02/steelers-make-their-coaching-changes-they-still-manage-to-disappoint/) _after the season ended. Certainly, the move to trade for WR DK Metcalf qualifies as a change, not to mention the accompanying contract. Oh, and they also traded some guy named George Pickens, which people found significant._
_There is still a long way to go before we know what this Steelers team is going to look like. The dust is settled on both free agency and_ [_the 2025 NFL Draft_](https://www.nfl.com/draft/)_. What other moves might the team make, perhaps unexpected acquisitions or departures? If they traded for one player, they could certainly trade for another, or trade one away. This is a Steelers team starving for postseason success, but how desperate are they for a playoff win in 2025?_