First off, a million apologies for not a lot of content last week. It was full of midterms and other school stuff, but I’ll put the violin away for now.
It’s time to look back on the careers of a few of the recently departed Steelers who left via free agency. 85 is up first.
Nate Washington arrived in Latrobe in 2005 as an undrafted free agent from Tiffin. People would have been asking where Tiffin was, but nobody paid any attention to an undrafted rookie from some school they never heard of.
Washington didn’t exactly drop jaws during his rookie season, but he did enough to stick with the team. Even making the roster was a mild victory for a guy coming into camp like that. Washington played behind Hines Ward, AntwaanRandle-El , Cedrick Wilson, and even Quincy Morgan.
Morgan ended up getting hurt in the 2005 playoff run and Washington saw his first real action of the year. His first NFL reception came in the AFC Championship against Denver and was his only catch of the season.
In 2006, a spot opened up for Nate when Morgan left in free agency, as did Randle-El. What followed was a fine season for Washington in only his second year – 35 catches for 624 yards, 4 TDs. He did drop quite a few balls though. A bad habit that seemed to dog him for a while and caused then-rookie Santonio Holmes to see more balls thrown his way as the year went on.
Washington had a great game against the Rams late in the year with a pair of long scores and Cedrick Wilson kept looking worse and worse as the weeks progressed. Still, his numbers were down and the drops persisted. Everybody saw the flashes of potential, but even the coaches and front office weren’t sold, as evidenced by the Limas Sweed selection in the draft.
But Nate was pretty great right from the start in 2008. Norm and I saw him burning people deep in training camp and he became one of Roethilsberger’s favorite deep targets this season. Washington was particularly great during a three-game stretch this season against Jacksonville, Cincinatti, and the Redskins, catching TDs in each game over 45 yards long. One aspect of his game that also improved was his catches in traffic. He made a few Hines Ward-esque grabs in big situations this year and I really expected to see 86 stand up with the ball instead of 85. Being a possession receiver will never be his thing, but he can definitely stay on the field for all downs now.
There’s no sense getting too worked up over Washington though. He never could make the full leap into a top tier wideout on this team and the Steelers kept drafting more receivers to help guide Nate to the bench. He’s a nice player to have, but the Steeler know he’s not worth paying the big bucks to given his role on the team. He’s definitely proven he more than belongs at a high level in the NFL, but I think he’ll find that being out there on every situation is a little harder than most think. He needs to be consistent on every down and that’s something he’s struggled with.
Still, I think Washington’s story is a great one. There was no chance for him to make the team when he showed up, and no some fans are very upset about losing him. He came in as an undrafted rookie from Tiffin and walked out a two-time Super Bowl champion with a fat, new contract.
You’d be hard pressed to read anything bad about Washington’s time in Pittsburgh, but all he really did was play a nice complementary role to Ward and Randle-El/Holmes/Wilson during most of his time. Unless Limas Sweed drops the ball, he shouldn’t be too sorely missed.
A big thanks to Nate Washington for a great four years of big plays.
