PITTSBURGH -- Darnell Washington vividly remembers the youth football practice where he hurdled his first defender.
A perpetual outlier among his peers since a third-grade growth spurt, Washington towered over the defender opposite him in the Oklahoma drill. As he strategized his approach before the whistle, Washington got an idea.
"I'm going to just hurdle him," he thought.
And that's just what he did.
"It felt amazing just passing somebody without getting touched because I never juke, so I can't say, 'Oh, I juked somebody clean and just kept running,"' Washington said. "I know I don't do that. So even back then, it's a similar game plan, at least for me. Stiff arm, lower the shoulder or hurdle."
Nearly two decades later, Washington's size advantage and moves are the same, but the stage is not. Now checking in at 6-foot-7 and officially listed at 264 pounds, but realistically closer to 300 pounds, the Pittsburgh Steelers tight end is making a name for himself with highlight-reel hurdles and stiff arms against the unlucky defensive backs tasked with slowing him down.
Thursday night, the 25-year-old will have an opportunity to add another chapter to his legendary lore in the Steelers' first primetime matchup of the season against the Cleveland Browns (8:15 ET, Amazon Prime).
Washington, though, is more than a viral clip. He's the X factor of the Steelers offense as a sure-handed pass catcher, practically untackleable runner and selfless blocker.
The stats support Washington's impact, too. The Steelers are 13-2 when Washington plays at least 40 offensive snaps. When he plays fewer than 40 snaps on offense, the team's record drops to 18-22. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that Washington played 47 snaps in the Steelers' 30-27 Week 3 win against the Cincinnati Bengals.
And as coach Mike McCarthy watched Washington turn one of those snaps into a 47-yard path of destruction with Bengals defenders trailing helplessly behind him, the Steelers coach had one thought: "Why don't you give him the ball more?" McCarthy said Monday afternoon, laughing as he thought back to that moment. "I think that's probably what everybody else is saying. He's unique. You can see it, and it seems like it's always on the sideline. He's a hard guy to tackle. I mean, he's a tough matchup."
That has been the case since former Desert Pines (Las Vegas) High School coach Tico Rodriguez first noticed Washington playing wide receiver for a different school in a 7-on-7 tournament in the summer of 2017, just after Washington's freshman year.
"He was very coordinated for his size," Rodriguez said. "And I was just like, 'Wow, this coach is very lucky to have him.'"
Three weeks later, Washington unexpectedly walked into the weight room at Desert Pines.
"He had just moved into our area, and my prayers had been answered," Rodriguez said. "He just walked in, 6-6, 220 and I was like, 'Wow.' It was a perfect fit for him to be here with us."
Each week, Rodriguez said, players from opposing schools looked forward to giving Washington their best shot. More often than not, they failed.
"They would try," said Rodriguez, who coached Washington from his sophomore to senior year. "And a lot of times Darnell would let them know, 'Yeah, I'm built like an NFL guy. I'm not just a high school guy.' And they would learn really quick that the big man had a lot of power and balance.
"Pretty much the best thing they could do was take his legs out, but then he's steamrolling over them. He would win a hundred percent of the time."
In Nevada high school football, hurdling is illegal and penalized with a 15-yard flag. Washington, though, did it out of necessity, and Rodriguez couldn't even be upset.
"He does it to protect himself, because he's so tall and a lot of guys want to cut tackle him," the coach said. "I could see why he did it and it was just like, we'll take the penalty and we'll just keep moving. We'll get it in the next play."
Washington did a little bit of everything for Desert Pines: wide receiver, running back, tight end, defensive end and even punter.
"I was one of those kids who just wanted to be on the field at all times," Washington said. "If I wasn't on punt pro, I wanted to become a punter."
By his senior season, Washington was a five-star recruit with a bouquet of offers from powerhouse college programs. He chose Georgia, moving across the country to play for coach Kirby Smart and offensive coordinator Todd Monken -- who is coincidentally now the Browns' head coach.
Despite the sure hands and natural bend that made him a formidable pass catcher, the Bulldogs primarily used Washington as a blocking tight end and a complementary player to receiving tight end Brock Bowers, who became the Las Vegas Raiders' 2024 first-round pick. While Bowers had 175 receptions, 26 touchdowns and more than 2,500 receiving yards from 2021 to 2023, Washington finished his three-year stint in Georgia with 45 career receptions for 774 yards and three touchdowns.
"You get the ball in his hands, he's hard to bring down," Monken said of Washington. "We probably didn't do it enough even in Georgia. Having him on the edge helps you block the C-gap, helps you be able to run the ball. And he's got such great range and power. He is hard to get. ... You won't bring a big man like that down with his size if you don't gang tackle him and get him well."
Since he was underutilized in college, Washington slipped to the third round of the 2023 NFL draft, where the Steelers landed him with the No. 93 pick. Though he appeared in every game in each of his first two seasons, Washington's role as a pass catcher was limited. He added more bulk to his frame, prompting some on social media to debate the viability of moving Washington to the offensive line.
Following the discourse from a distance, Rodriguez could only shake his head at the speculation. While Washington did a little of everything at Desert Pines, Rodriguez never considered that kind of position change.
"The way he moved and how coordinated he was, we didn't need him at offensive line," Rodriguez said, adding that Washington was a lean 260 pounds playing football and basketball. "We saw him as a vital threat on offense as a weapon. We never thought about him as an O-lineman.
"Seeing him from high school and how athletic he was and when he caught the ball, how violent he runs with it. I was just hoping he would get opportunities to touch the ball. When he touches the ball, he's very special. When he touches it, he makes things happen."
Washington's opportunities to do just that -- and on the biggest stage -- increased once quarterback Aaron Rodgers joined the Steelers in 2025. In his first season playing with Rodgers -- the quarterback once compared him to a young Marcedes Lewis -- Washington had career highs in targets (43), receptions (31), yards (364) and first downs (16). This offseason, the Steelers showed more belief in Washington by committing to him on a four-year, $42 million extension -- the most for a player primarily labeled as a blocking tight end.
6'7" 270-pound Darnell Washington with the hurdle attempt 😮 pic.twitter.com/AzPjEF74yJ
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 16, 2025
"He's just such a big body," Rodgers said after a win against the Indianapolis Colts last season in which Washington hurdled a defender. "I want to throw it up to him. ... He's a damn good player, and he needs the ball. When he gets the ball, good things happen. He's got good hands and he's good after the catch."
Through three games this season, Washington has 92 receiving yards and three first downs. He's also averaging a career-best 15.3 yards per reception.
But it's not the number of yards that makes Washington a uniquely lethal offensive player. It's how he gets them. Nearly 62% of Washington's receiving yards this season have been gained after first contact, and he leads the league in that category with a whopping average of 9.5 yards. The next closest player is Browns wide receiver Denzel Boston with an average of just 5.89 yards.
Translation: Washington is all but impossible to stop.
"Definitely can't run in there like a wild animal," Bengals linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. said of his tackling strategy of Washington before the Week 3 game. "You'll get stiff-armed, or you'll just get juked out. ... Don't go high or you will get thrown off of him like a little bug."
Atlanta Falcons safety Xavier Watts learned that lesson the hard way. Washington swatted him away a few steps into a 15-yard catch-and-run, stiff-arming Watts into the Acrisure Stadium turf en route to converting a crucial fourth-quarter third down.
A few days later, Rodgers chuckled as a reporter asked if the quarterback noticed defenders questioning themselves when Washington has a play like that.
"I do, and I would, too," Rodgers said. "I mean, he's an absolute load. Just trying to get him the ball in space to be able to turn. I think if you look at his targets and his YAC, every time he has a chance to turn on a defender, it's going to be a rough day."
Washington is second among all tight ends this season averaging 10.7 yards after the catch. Only the Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce (11.1) is ahead of him.
Thursday, the Browns certainly won't take defending Washington and his versatility lightly.
Last season, Washington put up 62 yards (41 of them after the catch) in the Steelers' Week 6 win against the Browns. Then in Week 17, Washington appeared on track for another big game, but his day ended early after he fractured a forearm late in the first quarter. He not only missed the rest of the Steelers' eventual 13-6 loss, but Washington also sat out their final two games as the Steelers eked out a close regular-season finale win against the Baltimore Ravens and were throttled by the Houston Texans in the wild-card round.
Faced with the tall task of slowing Washington yet again, Browns cornerback Denzel Ward, who helped Isaiah McGuire drag the tight end down after a 12-yard gain in the Steelers' Week 6 2025 win, was blunt in describing his approach.
"Run as fast as you can and hit him low," Ward said. "Hit him low and hard."
