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What was most encouraging about Darnell Washington‘s G-Day performance
It’s hard not to notice Darnell Washington when he’s on the field. At 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds, he’s easily one of the largest men on a team full of large men.
But while most players of his size are lining up on either the offensive or defensive line, Washington has the athletic ability to haul in passes as a tight end.
We saw a little bit of this at the end of the 2020 season, when Washington registered five catches in Georgia’s wins over Cincinnati and Missouri. We saw even more of it on G-Day, when Washington caught four passes for 84 yards and a touchdown.
On first view of Washington’s performance, it’s hard not to come away impressed with how Washington’s size makes him a tank in the open field.
Whether it be safety Dan Jackson getting steamrolled on a 51-yard run from Washington or Jackson and Burns being able to do nothing at all as Washington scored a touchdown on a perfectly placed Carson Beck pass, Washington’s size makes him a true physical mismatch.
“He’s going to bring a lot of different matchups with how big he is,” linebacker Quay Walker said of Washington. “Especially with him being able to move like he can move.”
But after going back and watching the tape from Georgia’s G-Day game, there’s even more reason to be encouraged about what Washington might be able to do this fall.
Georgia moved Washington around quite often on Saturday. They split him out wide. They put him in the slot. Yes, they still had formations where he started with his hand on the line of scrimmage but there were also times where he was lined up in bunch formation as well.
On Washington’s five targets in the game, only two came with him lined up like a traditional tight end. The 51-yard catch came when he was split wide. His touchdown catch came when he ran a post route out of the slot. No two targets for Washington came on the same route combination.
As Washington continues to get a better understanding of the Todd Monken offense, it appears Georgia is willing to get more creative with how it uses the sophomore tight end.
“He’s a weapon. We’ve got to find ways to be able to utilize him, both in the passing game and in the run game,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “Because he’s a weapon in both.”
Related: WATCH: The Georgia offense will go as far as the 2020 signees take them
Georgia fans saw up close what Kyle Pitts did at Florida a season ago, with the Gators using Pitts in a variety of ways to torment opposing secondaries. As college football continues to become more and more of an offensive-minded sport, elite schools like Alabama, Georgia and others will continue to look for jumbo athletes like Pitts or Washington as a way to continue to exploit secondaries.
Washington though has a long way to go before even seriously garnering Pitts comparisons. As a freshman, Washington had just seven total catches. Pitts had 12 touchdown catches in 2020.
The sophomore from Las Vegas though figures to be in a much better place in 2021 than he was in 2020. He arrived at Georgia in the middle of a pandemic and then had surgery last summer to clean up an injury stemming from high school.
Now in year two of college, Washington has begun to adjust to the rigors of the college game. Kirby Smart and Daniels have made consistent mentions of Washington’s improvements from the mental aspect of the game.
“You definitely do see a development in him,” Daniels said. “Last year, when you’re coming from high school to a real, coach Monken NFL system in college there is a shock that hits you right away just because there is so much to it. You see it this year he gets the signal and he knows what he’s doing right away. He’s not thinking about it like he was last year.
This spring still presented some challenges for Washington, as he missed some time at the beginning of spring practice. Because of that, Smart noted Washington still wasn’t in tip-top shape for Saturday’s scrimmage.
Much like is the case for Jordan Davis, Smart harped on how important it will be for Washington to maintain physical fitness if he’s going to be a big part of the Georgia offense.
Predicting what kind of numbers Washington might put up in 2021 is tricky. Isaac Nauta’s 30-catch season in 2018 is still the high-water mark for the position under Smart. There are also quite a few talented skill players that Daniels can target.
But Georgia also hasn’t had a tight end like Washington. If the Bulldogs are committed to using Washington in a variety of ways — as they did on G-Day — then there’s a real chance Washington is running over defenders against Clemson and Florida, instead of his own teammates.
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