Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — Darnell Washington is not walking through that door. The 6-foot-8, over-300-pound Pittsburgh Steelers tight end had surgery earlier this week to repair a fractured left forearm, a grisly injury that the mammoth Steelers tight end somehow played one more play before exiting last week’s loss to the Cleveland Browns with the injury.
Washington was placed on injured reserve earlier this week. By rule, he’s out the next four games. In actuality, his season is likely over.
There is always another player on the depth chart, and the Steelers are extremely deep at tight end, with Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith both former starters and Connor Heyward a productive and versatile backup.
But they do not have another Washington. No one does. There isn’t another player in the league that combines his size with his effectiveness as a receiver. He’s a sixth offensive lineman that happens to have the fourth-most receiving yards on the team.
The other guys on that depth chart — talented football players, all of them — cannot do the same things that Washington can do.
“Some of the stuff is just simply genetics” wide receiver Calvin Austin III said. “Not too many people in the world can do some of the things Darnell does. But some of it isn’t just, since he’s gone, throw that completely out. It’s different ways you can do things to utilize that next guy’s skillset.”
There are two personnel groupings the Steelers have used this year that have exclusively featured Washington — their Spartan package, during which Heyward lines up under center and they have a sequence of plays based on the tush push, and their Jumbo package, with Washington joining sixth offensive lineman Spencer Anderson to give the Steelers seven 300-pound blockers across the line of scrimmage.
Early in the game against the Browns, on a 3rd and 1, the Steelers used Spartan early in the game, having Heyward fake a tush push and run a quarterback power, with Jaylen Warren as the lead blocker, to gain 29 yards.
Connor Heyward might win the game for #Steelers #herewego #PITvsCLE pic.twitter.com/uA6fjgrsco
— Aristotle (@goLoko77) December 28, 2025
Later, after Washington was sidelined due to the injury, the Steelers faced a 4th and 1. Heyward started to walk onto the field, but Mike Tomlin demurred. The Steelers called a timeout, and afterward, Aaron Rodgers came out in an empty set with three wide receivers. His pass to Scotty Miller fell incomplete.
Both Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said that Washington not being available was not the sole reason they chose to try to throw for the first down there, but it would be hard to say it didn’t at least play some part.
But Smith said not to expect Spartan, Jumbo or the rest of the Steelers’ offensive wrinkles that include their big tight end to go away, just because he’s not in the lineup.
“You’ve got backups for all of that,” Smith said on Thursday. “If...
